Morning Moon
by Bajiijuu
Summary: Do you know why snow is white? Because it has forgotten what color it once was. The Touya/Yukito fic that maybe should have been put under Tsubasa. Will include crossovers galore and an AU CCS-independent original plot. Sorry for the delay, ch 9 is up!
1. Nadir: The Boy

A/N: Greetings! This story has actually been brewing in the scary back-regions of my brain for several years, so it's about time that I actually get around to writing it down. I just figured that there weren't enough Touya/Yukito fics out there, and this is what spawned. Anyway, this is a primarily Touya/Yukito story, but many other characters and pairings will be making appearances. Also, we will be visiting many characters from a multitude of other CLAMP fandoms, and at least one distinctly not-CLAMP fandom if all goes as planned, so expect many unnecessary crossovers and such. XD Plus, when it says AU, it means like... reverse half life graph AU. It'll start off barely noticable, but then slowly grow and grow until it's more like "Oh dear LORD, what IS that thing?? DX"

Also, it'll be a long-ish one, so expect to hear from me hopefully about once a week for a while.

* * *

Nadir

n. Opposite to the zenith opposite + as-samt, zenith.

1. That point of the celestial sphere directly opposite to the zenith and directly below the observer.

2. The lowest point.

* * *

Kinomoto Touya was not particularly looking forward to the second half of his first year in high school. Of course, his classmates would undoubtedly argue that Kinomoto-kun never really looked forward to _anything_, so it would not be that surprising that he wasn't thrilled about the rest of the school year. That was naturally absurd because Touya was sure he looked forward to plenty of things; he looked forward to turning eighteen, when his father said he could get his own apartment, looked forward to watching Sakura find what she wanted to do with her life, looked forward to getting rid of that damned stuffed toy she insisted on keeping in her room. Just because he didn't become overly ecstatic about having to waste yet another four months of his life away when he could have been working didn't mean that he did not 'look forward' to things.

When his classmates muttered about him being too defensive in the face of his infallible logic, he usually just huffed at their ignorance and went off to do something more productive with his precious time.

He really wouldn't have expected them to understand, anyway. No one ever did.

And 'something more productive' was exactly what he was doing when his teacher so rudely barged in to start homeroom, nearly six minuets late, he might add. He was almost half-way through reading ahead for his English class (it was his weakest subject, and the 'good morning' speech from the Homeroom teacher was the same every morning), when the usual greeting differed.

"… Which is why it's a good thing none of them were heard from ever again." Talk about tacky. "Anyway, moving on to a lighter note, we're getting a new transfer student today!" his teacher said, glancing to the door. "You can come in now."

The door to the hallway slid open, and for a moment Touya was reduced to staring uncharacteristically dumbly at the boy before his teachers' words brought him back to reality.

"I would like to introduce you all to our new transfer student; he's from overseas and will be in our class for the rest of the year, so I suggest you make a good first impression," she said, turning her attention to the pleasantly smiling 'transfer student'. "Why don't you tell the rest of the class a little more about yourself?"

"Of course," the boy said, turning around to face the class the rest of the way, and Touya had to wonder if it was just the cheap lighting in the school that made the boy's hair silver. "My name is Tsukishiro Yukito," he said with a little smile, his amber golden eyes sparkling with the soft mirth of some private joke as he seemed to briefly scan over his new classmates. "I just moved to Japan from England to live with my grandparents, so please excuse me for any problems I have with words." His eyes finally came to rest of Touya, who unconsciously stiffened just a little under the soft scrutiny of the gaze, and the smile seemed to change slightly. "I am sure we will become very good friends."

In light of the subtle accent and the fact that he had just moved from an entirely different country, no one else ever bothered to question the fact that he had not been referring to the class as a whole.

* * *

Touya spent the rest of the morning trying to ignore the soft glow the sun made as it reflected off the new transfer students' moonlight silver hair (which seemed to turn a pure white in the sunlight, not that he was looking, mind you) and the near silent humming that seemed to be originating from the previously unoccupied seat to his right. Damn that teacher of his for having to notice it was the only free seat in the classroom and placing that _boy_ next to him, damn it all. The thing that bothered him the most about the whole ordeal was that no one else (not even the person responsible for the 'disturbance') seemed to notice the sound. He should have been paying more attention to the teacher, granted (History had never been exactly his strongest subject, but he figured he could afford to fake a class once in a while), but most of his focus was spent on making it look as though he _wasn't_ focusing on the newly filled seat to his right rather than the teacher.

Not to say he wasn't failing at it miserably, though.

His pitiful attempt at focus painfully deteriorating once more as his eyes drifted yet again to his right, Touya felt an odd emotion bubbling somewhere in the pit of his stomach as he was greeted by bright amber eyes staring back at him curiously from behind thick, round glasses. Their eyes locked, and Touya was sure he felt an odd energy rush through the air between them, heading straight up his spine, before Tsukishiro sent him a sweet, friendly smile, and though the energy vanished the feeling in his stomach intensified ten fold as he forced his gaze back to the window, wondering why his face felt hot.

* * *

Touya had a strict lunchtime ritual he had been following rather religiously since he had first developed it back in the sixth grade. As soon as classed let out, he would go into the cafeteria, pick up his lunch, go back outside with either his homework or a good book and settle down under the campus sakura tree. (Of course, this routine had gotten so much easier now that he was actually in high school and no longer had to sneak onto the high school campus to get to the sakura tree, but that had never stopped him before.) He didn't like people to sit with him, and the people who wouldn't leave when he told them to he ignored until they got the point and left on their own accord. He didn't have any problems with creating awkward silences, so this usually worked pretty well for him.

Yes, his lunches were a time he truly cherished, which is why he was so painfully flustered when his quiet lunchtime custom was so blatantly altered.

First off, he had been too busy attempting to ignore the presence beside him, so he had missed the bell signaling the end of class by almost ten minuets (he wasn't quite sure why the new 'boy' sat so quietly beside him the entire time he was spacing off, giving him that infuriatingly patient smile the entire time, and didn't leave even when Touya came to, so he had to shoo the other away down the hall with an irritated air when he finally did get up to go to get his lunch), so when Touya actually managed to make it to the cafeteria they were out of the lunch he usually got, and he had to settle for a backup meal that consisted mainly of things he deeply hated with all of his being. It was only when he got up to the front of the line to pay for his meal that he realized he had managed to leave all of his things in the classroom, including his wallet, and had to retreat to go get it. After successfully retrieving his things from his desk and returning back to the cafeteria only to find the line for food longer than he could ever recall seeing it before, he finally decided he wasn't all that hungry to begin with and just headed over to his spot under the sakura tree with a frustrated twitch developing under his eye. Then, after he had settled down quite comfortably, he realized that he had been too busy ignoring the world and all that encompasses it to get his homework assignment and he had finished his last book yesterday, which, as you may guess, did absolutely nothing to improve his steadily decreasing mood. Leaning back against the trunk of the tree with an irritated sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest, he unwittingly invited the largest disturbance to his lunch pattern just as if he had left the porch light on and not expected moths to come flocking.

Honestly, if he had known where this was all leading him he might have just stayed in bed.

"Kinomoto-kun? Have you finished eating your lunch already?"

Touya had to admit he was probably left gaping for the better half of two minuets. Tsukishiro was standing in front of him with a pleasant, if not somewhat absent, smile on his too-pale face and a large brown bag balanced awkwardly somewhere between his slightly uncoordinated arms and chin. How he had not noticed the boy before, Touya honestly didn't know, just as he didn't know why he shook his head no, mouth still agape in a classic case of blatant speechlessness. Tsukishiro looked two parts vaguely concerned and one-third slightly disapproving.

"It's not good to skip meals," he chided sweetly.

Touya knew he was being chastised, but couldn't bring himself to be miffed about it, so he just shook his head again, figuring the silent treatment would work it's magic within a minuet or two.

"I'm sure you don't have time to go through that line I saw in the cafeteria, though," the other boy blundered on obliviously, beginning to awkwardly attempt to rumage through the large bag he had somehow carried with him, ignoring both Touya's best befuddled expression and the laws of physics, finally managing to produce what appeared to be a manjuu bun triumphantly.

Touya suddenly had the horrifying impression the entire mountain of a sack was filled with food, and his face must have reflected his terror because Tsukishiro actually had the nerve to laugh at him.

"I have a much, much fast metabolism," he stumbled, reminding Touya once again how very foreign he was with a amiable laugh. "So I bring a lunch to school because it would cost very, very much to buy one here. Does Kinomoto-kun bring a lunch, too?"

Touya honestly couldn't explained why he was at such a loss of words (it had never happened before, after all), so he decided to turn the conversation smoothly away from himself.

"You talk weird," he pointed out tactfully. Maybe some people were never meant to be politicians after all.

"Ah," Tsukishiro commented brightly. "I think I like to talk, though, so I think later I will get better at it. I did not speak any Japanese a week ago at all, but they say I learn quickly." He apparently decided Touya did not like manjuu buns and popped open the wrapping himself with an absent-minded hum before turning his gaze back to the dark-haired boy thoughtfully. "Kinomoto-kun looked lonely by himself, so I thought I would keep him company here. Does he care if I stay?"

Somehow, Touya knew his answer would change _something_. Somehow, he knew how he responded would change his life drastically, though for better or worse he didn't know.

On one hand, he didn't want any friends, didn't _need_ them, he was sure he didn't have much in common with Tsukishiro, and accepting his offer and letting him stay for lunch would open the floodgates concerning the girls in his class he was always attempting to beat back with sticks (sometimes all too painfully literally).

On the other hand, Tsukishiro was _different_, with his strange energy and warm eyes and weird way of talking, and Touya wasn't sure his abnormalities stopped with simply being 'different.' Maybe keeping him close by wouldn't be such a bad idea, even if it was just to keep an eye on him, he told himself sternly. And, he had to admit he _was_ hungry, but did he really want to deal with everything accepting the boy's company would bring?

The silent pause in the air as he thought it all over stretched almost till it almost hurt to think about, till most anyone else probably would have grown awkward and left, and yet Tsukishiro didn't falter once, patiently waiting with an unchanging smile of encouragement the entire time. Maybe this was what finally helped Touya to a firm decision.

"No," he said finally.

Tsukishiro tilted his head to the side slightly, as if waiting for him to continue. Touya shook his head slightly in amazement.

"No," he said again, letting out a pained, long suffering sigh of surrender. "I guess I don't really mind."

His new classmates' smile widened visibly, his amber eyes taking on a gleeful glint as he settled down next to Touya at a respectful distance, rummaging through the giant sack he called a lunch. "I am glad. Does Kinomoto-kun like melon buns?" he tried again, offering one out.

"Yeah, sure."

Tsukishiro beamed at him as he took the proffered food, turning his attention back to the manjuu he had opened earlier with a blissful grin. "I have never had this before coming to this place, but I really like them," he explained matter-of-factly, as though this were a very serious subject that everyone needed an opinion on. "Which are Kinomoto-kun's favorite type?"

"Er, sweet bean buns, I guess," he said lamely, not really used to attempting to have to deal with this 'small talk' or 'friendly chatter' that most people seemed to find so entertaining. "I don't really trust the manjuu buns anymore," he concluded with a slight wrinkle of his nose.

"Any reason really?" Why did Tsukishiro so look concerned now? He didn't like that, he decided, and hurriedly stumbled on to explain.

"Nothing, just some weird experiences with crazy people, that's all."

"Oh," Tsukishiro commented, giving the manjuu in question one last questioning look before deeming it Good Enough and turning his attention back to eating with a happy sounding 'itadakimasu!' Touya turned his head to stare at him blankly, causing the boy to flush slightly. "Did I say something badly?" he asked finally.

"No," Touya responded impassively. "Not really."

"Then Kinomoto-kun is staring at something Kinomoto-kun finds strange?"

"You. You're really, really weird."

"Oh." Touya wasn't sure why he found the barely noticeable blush covering Tsukishiro's pale face so endearing, and couldn't entirely push down the twitching his fidgeting caused. "Is that bad for Kinomoto-kun?"

Touya considered this briefly. "I guess not. A lot of people think being original is a good thing," he said, carefully choosing his words much the same way one would choose their footing when traversing through a settlement of land mines.

"Is Kinomoto-kun one of those people?" Tsukishiro asked, looking much too hopeful.

"…" Touya really, really didn't want to answer that, but he couldn't bring himself to crush that overly optimistic expression. It reminded him too much of his sister. "… I_guess_it'snot_that_bad…" he ground out painfully after a moments' pause, slurring his words together in hope of making them sounds less… soft.

He really didn't know how the previously flustered blush managed to look so happy so suddenly without really changing color, but somehow Tsukishiro managed it. "Thank you very much for those words," he said, bowing over happily. "I knew I would like Kinomoto-kun very, very much."

Touya really didn't know what he was being thanked for, but he could tell it was sincere, so he just tried to focus on squashing down the slightly squishy feeling bubbling up in his stomach, but he wasn't quite sure he managed, so he just nodded.

"I guess you're welcome, then, Tsukishiro."

"Yukito."

"What?"

"My name," Tsukishiro said again, slowly and gently and smiling at him in the same way one would when trying to teach something to an especially slow puppy. " My name is Yukito. If you call me 'Tsukishiro' all the time I will feel much too old."

Touya frowned slightly but nodded anyway. He still felt a bit odd, but he was starting to understand the feeling wasn't completely bad at all. "I'll make you a deal then; you call me 'Touya' and I'll call you 'Yukito.' No more 'Kinomoto-kun,' okay?" That really, really hurt to say, but deep down he thought it was only fair. Equivalent exchange and whatnot.

Tsukishiro Yukito was beaming at him as if he had just announced he had solved world hunger. "That sounds like a very good deal to me, 'To-ya'."

"No, it's 'Touya'," he corrected, frowning slightly. Now Yukito's expression mirrored something if Touya would expect what most people would have thought if he had announced his best friend was a time-traveling flower pot.

"Is that not what I said? 'To-ya'."

"No, it's-" He paused, remembering just how foreign Tsukishiro was and sighed. "We'll work on it later. 'To-ya' is fine for now." Suddenly there was a later now? Oh god, this was worse than he thought.

World hunger must have been solved again, because Yukito was beaming at him once more before rummaging through the huge brown bag yet another time, surfacing with another roll he offered to Touya, despite the fact that he had not yet gotten even half-way through his first (Maybe it was some acceptance thing with this kid? But honestly, where had the first manjuu gone so quickly?), and they spent the rest of the lunch break eating in a companionable silence in the shade of the school sakura tree.

Maybe sometimes rituals need some re-thinking after all.

* * *

The rest of the school day went by fairly quickly compared to the snail's pace the morning had passed at. Tsukishiro Yukito turned out to be a fairly decent study partner, even by Touya's standards, though his kanji sometimes randomly transformed into odd-meaning symbols at inconvenient or even awkward moments. He decided they would work on that later, too.

Plus, he had been paying attention during the morning classes and was able to tell Touya about the homework he needed to do, and was also fluent enough in English to help Touya understand what he had missed.

The school day ended fairly normally, though soccer practice ran over a bit and he didn't start heading home until nearly five. Unhitching his bike and getting on with a quiet sigh, most of the thoughts occupying his head were already simply dealing with why he wasn't already the captain of the soccer team rather than what had taken place earlier in the day. It was obviously because he was only a first year, he concluded grimly, because he was (modestly) by far the best player on the team. Almost everyone, not just the soccer team, in the entire school knew it, and so did he. Stupid third years. Burrowing deeper into his brooding thoughts as he peddled down his home street, he really didn't know why he wasn't more surprised when he turned a corner and saw a rapidly-becoming-familiar figure wandering aimlessly at the corner across from him.

He briefly considered just leaving - Tsukishiro hadn't noticed him yet; he seemed to be a bit too preoccupied with staring at the street signs in open bafflement - but solemnly pushed his instincts aside and slid off his bike quietly, padding over to Yukito in much the same way a convicted criminal would approach his executioner.

"Is something wrong?" he asked once he finally rallied his courage, trying to ignore the surprised noise Tsukishiro made as he spun around.

"To-ya-kun?" he squeaked, adjusting his round glasses with an embarrassed air. "What is To-ya-kun doing here?"

"I live on this street," Touya deadpanned. Yukito's face lit up a bit.

"Really? Then could To-ya help find Henkou street? I think going to the store coming back from school made it go missing…"

"It's just a couple blocks over that way," Touya said, gesturing vaguely before frowning at Yukito's suddenly crestfallen expression.

"Ah, okay… thanks very much for To-ya-kun's help," Tsukishiro said, giving him a brief, deeply distracted bow before wandering absently in the exact opposite direction from where Touya had gestured.

Touya frowned, watching his new classmate meander down the road before pausing to stare up at the street sign in hopeless confusion, adjusting his glasses in vain, before continuing on to the next one, the whole time venturing further and further from the street he had been asking about. Finally accepting his fate with a sigh, Touya shifted his bag onto his other shoulder and began walking after Yukito, wondering why the expression on the other boy's face reminded him of his kid sister whenever someone in a movie died.

"Oi, Yukito," he called, watching the other boy spin around, stumbling slightly in his rush.

"Yes?" Yukito asked, barely managing not to look _completely_ hopeful.

"Would you like to stop at my house first for something to eat, since it's right here?" Touya responded, barely managing at keeping his face from pulling into a _complete_ grimace of horror at the idea.

Tsukishiro practically bounded back over to him, looking absolutely overjoyed at the idea, but somehow managed to restrain his enthusiasm enough to remain polite. "Is To-ya-kun sure? I do not want to be a trouble…"

Touya shook his head, not really sure if he was agreeing to Yukito's statement or disapproving of it. "It's fine," he said, leading them back to his own house and up the walkway. "Sakura'll probably be thrilled to meet you; her best friend if out of town right now."

"'Sakura' is the name of To-ya-kun's little sister?"

"Yeah."

Yukito smiled up at him sweetly. Touya took the opportunity to notice how much taller he was to the other boy. Almost a full head-and-a-half. Now he felt better about himself. "That is a very good name," the smaller boy said. "She must be a very good person."

Touya paused with his hand on the doorknob, considering Tsukishiro's judgment with a level stare before deeming it worthy of a nod of approval. "Yeah, she is," he said, opening the door and propping his bike against the wall outside with his foot at the same time. "I think she'll really like you, too."

Yukito hummed softly to himself as he followed Touya inside, leaning against the wall in a slightly awkward attempt at removing his shoes without falling over.

Touya grinned to himself as he quickly stepped out of his own shoes before turning his attention to the staircase across from the door. "Oi, Kaijuu, get down here for a minuet!"

There was a loud thud from the vicinity of his sister's room upstairs, followed by an earsplitting shriek of righteous indignation. "Sakura no kaijuu ja nai yo!"

"Could've fooled me," Touya sneered, scratching at his ear lightly, though he was sure she had heard him by the sound of her door slamming open and the noise of angry stomps heading towards the stairwell. He grinned, glancing back at Yukito to see that the boy looked more confused at his choice of words rather than being startled by his apparent rudeness to his sister.

"Onii-chan!" Sakura screamed, stomping down the stairs as fast as her eight-year-old legs could carry her in her rage. "Onii-chan! Sakura no kaijuu-"

She skidded clumsily to a halt, almost tripping over herself in her hurry to stop, staring at Yukito in open shock. Touya's grin widened even more as he casually shrugged his bag higher up on his shoulder. "See, that's what I've been trying to tell you," he said, stepping past her and into the main part of the house. "Glad you've finally started listening to me"

His enjoyment of the situation only increased as she turned a painfully vibrant red, letting out an embarrassed squeak of, "Hooooo_eeeeeee_…." Yukito smiled pleasantly, crouching down softly so he was at the same level as her.

"Hello," he grinned. "You must be Sakura-chan? I am Tsukishiro Yukito; I just transferred here to your brother's school today. It is very nice to meet you." Really now, no one should be able to bow while crouched that low and still look graceful, Touya reasoned.

Sakura, however, did not apparently think the same way, because her blush only deepened as her bright green eyes darted over to Touya in a questioning way before she awkwardly returned the bow with an embarrassed peep, stuttering something unintelligible that he assumed was supposed to be a greeting, trying and failing at hiding her burning face behind her peach-brown bangs in what she thought was a stealthy move.

Yukito seemed politely amused.

"Can I enter?" he asked, gently reminding her she was having her mini-meltdown in the doorway. If possible, Sakura's blush turned an even deeper shade of scarlet, and she stumbled back a few clumsy steps.

"O-o-o-of course!" she finally managed.

"Thank you," Yukito said, stepping around her carefully. "Please excuse me for intruding."

"Just get in here," Touya chided gently, heading towards the kitchen and dropping his bag in the living room on the way. "You still hungry?"

"Yes, a bit," came the pleasant answer from the doorway. Apparently Yukito felt like being tidy and was currently organizing the entire families' shoes according to color and size absently.

Sakura was attached to Touya's arm faster than he could keep track of, tugging at his shirt sleeve insistently to pull his head down to her level. "Ask Tsukishiro-san to stay for dinner," she whispered urgently. "Please, Onii-chan?"

He raised an eyebrow at her calmly, causing her to blush until her face could have easily been mistaken for an overly-ripe tomato, but she didn't waver in her pleading conviction. Finally deciding to be nice and not pick on her for once, he nodded, whispering back, "Fine, but you have to help Dad with the dishes, then," before standing straight and turning his attention back to where Tsukishiro had thankfully finished rearranging the shoes. "Yukito, you wanna eat here tonight?"

Yukito's face lit up brilliantly at the suggestion, but he still looked politely reserved. "Is To-ya-kun sure? I do not want to bother…"

Touya was sure he could feel the muscles about his eye twitching at an unhealthy rate. "If I wasn't sure, than I wouldn't have asked," he said firmly. "Now get in here while I call Dad to ask what he was going to make for dinner."

And so it was settled. A gushing Sakura lead a happily chattering Yukito into the living room while Touya headed into the kitchen to start to food. This didn't last too long, however, and soon all three of them had somehow gathered in the kitchen to work together (or not work, as it sometimes happened), and then suddenly Yukito was tugging absently at his sleeve in much the same way his sister did whenever she had a question she deemed urgent.

"To-ya-kun," he whispered gravely as Sakura was retrieving one of her prized cheerleading awards from upstairs for gloating purposes. "What is 'kaijuu'?"

Touya stared at him blankly for a moment before finally registering the question at roughly the same time Sakura was coming back down the stairs. "I'll… explain it to you later, okay?" he said finally.

And later, he actually did. And he honestly didn't mind too much when Yuki laughed and poked at him, either.

And so when Kinomoto Fujitaka-sensei arrived home from a particularly long day of work, he was surprised by the family-like warmth radiating from the scene. But maybe he was just surprised in general; it was, Kinomoto-sensei later mused, the first time Touya had ever brought home a friend. Maybe this was the beginning of a new social streak, and maybe his son had finally started making friends like any normal teenager his age?

But after being introduced to the politely smiling transfer student with the moonlight silver hair and golden eyes, something in Fujitaka's gut told him that no, this was a special occasion.

And, as it usually is with gut feelings, he was right.

* * *

All done for now! Ah, and btw, kudos to everyone who can guess where the summary quote came from. XD


	2. The Train Station

A/N: Well, here's chapter two, out a bit sooner than I had been planning, but whatever. From now on, I hope to get on a better schedual soon. XD I'm not personally that fond of this chapter, but it is the start of the crossovers, and hopefully it's just my perfectionistic tendensies speaking again. But it just seemed like not matter how much I played with it, it just wouldn't sort out right, so I figured I'd just put it up as is and hope other people like it more than I do. Well, hopefully chapter three will go better.

Oh, and minor spoilers for book thirteen of Tsubasa, if you choose to see them. If not, then just imagine I just made it all up, due to the fact that it _is_ an AU, afterall. XD

Shoot! Since I forgot to put on in earlier, this is my excuse for a disclaimer: I am not CLAMP and do not own any of the characters portrayed here. I do enjoy playing with them though.

* * *

For the first time he could ever remember since his mother's death, time seemed to pass at a normal pace rather than the agonizing crawl Kinomoto Touya had become accustomed to. If anything, it was almost as if some infidel had the very nerve to press the fast forward button on his life, which was more annoying than was possible to put into words. Touya wished he could find the person with this all powerful time remote and give then a good, solid kick in the gut, because he really wanted his life set to normal speed so he could think properly, thank you very much. Somehow Tsukishiro Yukito had managed to become a very significant part of not only his daily routine, but his very life.

Aside from sitting next to each other in classes and eating together during lunch, Yukito also often stayed after school to help with soccer practices almost every day they met, though he wouldn't join the team for some reason.

"I do not want any official responsibilities," he would say with a sweet smile whenever someone would ask. "I just feel like helping out, if I can." And then he would always send Touya a meaningful glance at this point, making him wonder whether Yuki thought he was really helping the team, or someone else.

"To-ya," Yuki would always say afterwards as they were walking home, sending him as serious a look as it was possible for him to make without someone having been gutted. "Should not be so serious about all things all the time. It will turn you into a very old man with grey hair before you are done with college!"

At this, Touya would have to put up his most deeply amused frown and say, "If that were true, then you must have worried yourself sick as a kid."

And Yuki would grin and respond, "Just living up to my name. To-ya just has no excuse!"

Then Touya would have to shake his head with a slightly less-noticeable-than-usual sigh of not-quite-irritation and a traditional "Whatever you say Yuki," and they would walk home talking about what was on TV and what was for dinner.

With Sakura's best friend apparently on an extended absence, Yuki became an almost constant dinner addition. One day when Yuki couldn't stay ("My grandparents need me to meet an old friend of the family to pick something up for them," he said absently. "I can't remember what, but I'm sure that person will know."), Touya was complaining about it to his father over the dishes ("Yuki didn't even know this persons' name!" he said angrily. "Yuki could be going to meet some kind of axe murderer for all I know!"), and was stopped midway through his rant as he noticed that his father was smiling at him.

"You think Yuki blundering into some crazed psychopath is funny?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course not," Fujitaka replied calmly as he handed his son a plate in need of drying. "Though I severely doubt that is what Tsukishiro-kun will be meeting if he is on an errand for his grandparents."

"It could be some hacker speaking as his grandparents to get Yuki to walk blindly right into his trap!" Touya protested, huffing when his father simply laughed at him. Why were so many people laughing at him lately? "Then what was that look for?"

"I was just noticing how you refer to Tsukishiro-kun," Fujitaka commented lightly from his place next to the sink. "It's not like you to give someone a nickname."

Touya wasn't sure why his face felt hot, and decided to take out this newfound emotion on the dish he was drying. "He called me 'To-ya' first," he grumbled defensively; he did have a reputation to maintain, after all. "And besides, it's not like I just met him yesterday."

"No," his dad said casually. "That was a week and a half ago, after all."

Touya couldn't decide if he wanted to be surprised about this new revelation or if he didn't want to bother. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to care too much, because the next day Yuki was fine, if not a little more absentminded and tired than usual, but he had obviously not come into contact with any kind of crazed axe murderers recently.

When questioned about the whole incident, Yuki would get a bit of a downcast look for a moment before responding with a quiet, "Actually, I don't remember much," he said. "I just remember walking to the other side of town, and then I was kind of just back at my house again with a letter saying not to worry about picking that thing up for my grandparents anymore. It was very weird."

And that really wasn't very reassuring at all; in fact, it raised many, many questions concerning date rape drugs and such, but Yuki insisted he felt fine, and he always managed to change the subject before Touya could get himself too worked up, so the memory soon faded into unimportance.

* * *

Three weeks later, Touya was walking home from work by himself (Yukito had needed to go grocery shopping, which was a scary enough thought to leave Touya without an appetite for the rest of the week), and he let his thoughts wander absently for the first time in what felt like an eternity. It was strange; a little over a month ago, he'd wanted nothing to do with any other living soul apart from his little sister. Now he wasn't quite sure what to do without Yuki's calming presence hovering quietly by his side like a loving puppy… Err, rabbit. Though it was seriously damaging to the image he had been working to establish since the third grade, overall his new 'acquaintanceship' with Yuki ('friendship' was such a strong word; he hadn't used it since he was five and was still reluctant to use it now) was doing more good than harm.

Especially good where Sakura was concerned; she was absolutely infatuated with Yukito, and with her best friend currently Missing in Action while on a visit to her sister, it was good for her to have someone to spend time with.

Also, he had a feeling that when the time came to address Sakura's newfound crush, Yukito would do everything possible to avoid hurting her, so it was all okay. And because he was such a kind and loving older brother, no matter how much grief a situation was causing him (not that having Yuki follow him around was causing him much agony, but still), he would always put up with it if it was good for Sakura.

Through his thoughts and aimless wonderings, Touya suddenly came to reality enough to notice that he had somehow ended up in front of the train station, of all places. And that was surprising enough on its own, considering the train station was well out of the way of his normal route home, but it was made even more surprising then it usually would be in view of who he saw there.

"Daidouji-san?" he called, raising an eyebrow slightly in his surprise.

Daidouji Tomoyo was a small girl, even for her third grade status, her quiet sweetness often making her seem even smaller, her long black hair pulled up into an elaborate style with a traditional looking hair ornament, decorated by several jingling and sparkling bells. Her usually modern (and sometimes slightly scary) clothes had been replaced with what Touya thought looked something like a deep purple version of what traditional miko robes were supposed to look like, a drastic change from her normally contemporary style. At the moment, all her attention seemed to be occupied with something inside one of the passenger cars of the train, so much so that he had to call her several time for her to notice him.

"Kinomoto-san?" she questioned, only looking mildly surprised before smiling sweetly. "My, you look much more pleasant than I recall. Did something good happen while I was away?"

Fighting back the rather uncharacteristic urge to blush (he really had to stop doing that, damn himself), and nodded brusquely, not sure if he was confirming or just acknowledging the question, otherwise ignoring it entirely. "You're back from visiting your sister then?"

"Actually," she responded kindly. "The business I was attending to with my sister still needs tending to, but for now it will be her responsibility."

Talking to her, it was easy to forget she was the same age as his stupidly adorable little sister, when she spoke in such a mature fashion. Even as a first year in high school, most of what she had just said had gone almost completely over his head, though he silently defended himself against himself by kindly reminding himself that he knew absolutely nothing about the subject they were discussing and was therefore allowed to be a bit clueless. He illustrated his inner argument about his obliviousness to her by calmly raising an eyebrow in her direction.

She giggled at him, the first thing that day that reminded him that she actually was in the third grade.

"My sister is going back to Shirasaki," Tomoyo said. "She is dropping me off here on her way back."

Even as she spoke, Daidouji Kendappa stepped down onto regular ground, her head held high in an almost regal manner. Kendappa was quite a bit older than her younger sister, Touya was sure she must be nearly twenty by now, but they were very obviously closely related. Her long black hair pulled back in a less elaborate bun than Tomoyo's, but her clothes reminded him more of a warrior's outfit than a miko, and he felt a strange chill rush up his spine when her serious gaze met his eyes.

"Tomoyo," she said gravely, raising an eyebrow at him in a way that did not bode well with Touya. "Do you know this person?"

Touya was suddenly very worried of the consequences should Tomoyo deny that they had met before. Seriously, this sister was scary. However, he luckily didn't have to think about it too hard because Tomoyo did not seem to be in a very playful mood.

"This is Sakura-chan's older brother, Kinomoto Touya-san," she answered softly. "He will be fine."

Though Kendappa did not seem completely appeased, she did have the decency to stop giving Touya that Look that he had so quickly come to loath.

"If you say so," she consented finally, fully stepping out of the train and beginning to walk more towards the station before pausing and turning back towards the compartment she had just left. "… Are you coming?" she called to it.

There was, Touya realized as he looked through the window of the train for the first time, another person in the train. A boy, probably not that much older than Touya himself, staring out the opposite window in a deep daze Touya had grown to recognize as a place no one else should ever be intrude into. He couldn't see the other teen very well through the tinted and slightly elevated train windows (he thought he saw black hair and tan skin, thought the other looked very Japanese, but that could have just been the tint), but the fact that he hadn't noticed another presence in the first place was what bothered him. Granted, the other's aura was so muted and downcast it would have been easy for him to pass the guy off for a wandering spirit, but still…

Noticing the other was too busy not paying attention to follow her, Kendappa stopped, calling out once more pointedly. "Kurogane," she called sternly. "Are you coming?"

It took the other teen a moment to respond, as if the name was new to him, before turning around to face her and standing up with great reluctance. He slowly padded over to the compartment door before hesitating just inside the threshold wobbly, a dark look passing over his face, as if realizing stepping through the doorway before him would change the rest of his life, struggling to match Kendappa's strong gaze wearily.

"…. Aa," he managed finally, stepping down onto the ground with a wince that suggested the sharp pain of severely sore muscles.

Touya frowned, studying the other boy intently. He did look very Japanese, except for maybe his eyes, just like Tomoyo and her sister did (maybe they were related…?), and he couldn't have been much more than three or four years older than Touya himself, with short black hair, long, fit limbs and tan skin that came from spending many hours outside. Most alarming, though, was the fact that his entire left arm, the greater part of his torso, and the left part of his face was completely covered in bandages, and he walked with a painful looking limp. Still, the most noticeable to Touya about the boy was his eyes, which were an unusual shade of deep, blood red, but their color was not what caught his attention the most.

What Touya noticed the most about the other boy's eyes was the lack of life energy that most people had, even to a limited degree. This boy's eyes were just… dead.

He probably took a step backwards as the boy with dead eyes walked past him towards Kendappa, barely sparing a glance in Touya's direction before he was immersed in a hushed conversation with her. Somehow, his unknowing back peddling had placed him right next to Tomoyo, who was watching her sister converse with the boy with an oddly unreadable expression on her childish face.

"… Kurogane-kun," she said softly, so suddenly Touya jumped a bit, wondering briefly if she was talking to him. "His parents were very good friends of my sister. So, that's why when they were killed, he just had to come to us. Right now, my sister will have to take care of him, but eventually, it will be my responsibility to make sure he grows properly."

She spoke so wistfully and so solemnly that he once again had to remind himself that she was a classmate of his sister, and frowned deeply.

"Isn't that a bit much to ask of you?" he tried eventually. "How can you possibly be expected to assume responsibility for someone else's life? No one could ever ask that of you."

She looked briefly startled before smiling up at him softly. "You must have misunderstood," Tomoyo said. "I am not to be responsible for his future; no one can do that but him. I must merely be sure he had the proper past, and set him up in a situation where he may truly grow in the future. A very wise friend asked me to do this, and so I will do my best to guide this person when the time is right. Besides, I do not have to worry about it for a few more years," she finished with a giggle.

Touya thought about it, nodded once, twice, then again a third time because he still didn't really understand and opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a loud exclamation from the other two.

"You're wrong!" Kurogane was shouting, standing his ground against the impassive glare of the older woman surprisingly well. "You're wrong! It's because… It's because…" he trailed off, seeming to loose his vivacity and fell back a bit before returning to staring at the ground blankly.

"So then," Kendappa drawled darkly. "What is it you wish for the most, knowing what you do?"

The boy looked troubled for a moment, before a pained expression came over his face. "Mother and Father…" he stumbled, his voice choking off the rest of the sentence, forcing him to swallow thickly and try again after a moment in a strained voice, clenching his fists angrily. "Mother and Father… and everyone else… They all died… because I wasn't strong enough to protect them! So… So… That's why I want to be stronger! I want to be strong enough to protect everyone, so that no one important to me will be taken away like that ever again!" He straightened up, meeting her gaze with a suddenly burning intensity. "Just watch! I will be stronger than anyone else, you'll see!"

There was a tense pause as the two almost glared at each other before Kendappa smiled slightly, startling Kurogane into taking a step backwards clumsily. "Very well," she said, giving him an approving nod before turning and walking towards the station again. "If you want to be strong, then I can help. You don't have to come with me if you don't want; feel free to go wherever you want. Do whatever you want. It's your choice."

Kurogane paused very briefly, trotting off after her after a seconds' thought, what was soon to be a permanent scowl etched onto his features.

Kendappa hadn't stopped to wait for him, but he was sure he saw her smile grow when she heard him following. "Tomoyo, call Mother. Tell her to send a car."

"Of course, Sister," Tomoyo responded, before turning her attention back to Touya with a smile. "Would you like a ride home?" she asked sweetly.

Touya thought about it, watching the strange woman with the warrior's aura and the angry boy with dead eyes disappear into the train station and quickly came to what he thought to be a rather sensible choice.

"I think I'll walk," he deadpanned.

He was never quite sure what to make of her laugh. Walking away a few moments later, he thought back over the whole incident and tried to come up with some form of a logical explanation. But it seemed that the more he thought about it, the less sense it seemed to make. He was actually starting to get a little freaked out by the time he rounded a corner three blocks away from his house and ran into an increasingly familiar figure once more.

"Yuki?" he addressed the large sack that was currently obscuring the view of his friend.

"To-ya?" the bag replied, shuffling about a bit before revealing Yukito's head after a moments shuffle. "What is To-ya doing? To-ya was supposed to have work today."

"I did. I got off," he said. "What're you doing? I thought you were shopping for the whole week. That's hardly going to last your for the rest of the day."

"Well, I started to, but then I got this feeling that I needed to be somewhere. Something important seemed to be happening that I needed to see…" Yuki frowned. "But I couldn't get out fast enough, and I think I missed it…"

Touya thought briefly of telling Yuki what he had seen, but decided against it. For whatever reason Daidouji-san had for acting the way she did, she had the right for privacy about it. "Maybe you're missing a show or something?"

"Oh no!" Yuki said suddenly. "There something on the cooking channel I wanted to see!"

"Maybe you can still catch the ending," Touya said, shrugging. "My house is closer."

Yukito beamed up at him before falling into step beside Touya, something which had never happened with another person before, much less as often as it did with Yuki.

Maybe, when he thought about it, not everything needed such a logical explanation.

* * *

As time passed, everything and everyone quickly returned to normal. Tomoyo's older sister, Kendappa, had returned to her place up north, taking the angry boy with the red eyes with her, and Tomoyo never brought them up. Yukito became and even more common house guest, often staying over after school for study sessions after school, something Touya was glad to be able to actually accomplish now that Sakura was back to playing with her own friend.

Once during a brief break from one of their slightly less-productive study sessions (Yuki was still having some trouble with a few kanji, but seemed to be absolutely focused on the fact that it was snowing outside, to the point that Touya was quite sure what his friend was writing did not exist in any language), Touya had come out of the kitchen from getting snacks to find Yukito staring absently at one of the many framed pictures of his mother on the table. Sakura had cheerleading practice and had said something about wanting to wait for Tomoyo to get out of choir, and his father had needed to stay at work late to prepare for some presentation or another, so they were alone in the house. Somehow this calmed him enough to brave the subject, albeit awkwardly.

"That's my mother," he said, trying not to grin when Yuki jumped and looked at him sheepishly, like he was surprised that he could have possibly been caught. "She was a model, so Dad always clipped out her pictures from magazines and such."

"Oh," Yuki said, returning his gaze to the picture. "She's very pretty. Sakura-chan takes after her, right? So she must be a good person too."

"She was," Touya agreed, going over to join Yuki in gazing at the picture.

"You keep talking about her in the past tense," Yukito noted, wrinkling his nose slightly in apprehension. "And I never see her. Is she…?"

"She died, almost six years ago."

"Oh. I'm so sorry. You must have been very close."

"It was a long time ago," Touya said, before frowning slightly. "What makes you say that?"

Yuki just looked at him for a long moment, as if considering something very deeply, before breaking into a large smile. "Just can tell," he said finally, laughing.

Touya didn't want to admit he was right, but Yuki seemed to take his slight flush as proof enough. "Well, what about you? How come you live with your grandparents here in Japan? You moved from England, right?"

"Oh, that." Yukito turned his attention back to the row of photos lining the table with a little hum. "My parents died in a car crash, and there were no other relatives."

Touya gaped. "Just recently?"

"A couple of weeks before moving here, yes."

"Oh god," he said thoughtfully, remembering what a wreck he had been when his mother had passed away. "Oh god, Yuki, I'm so sorry."

Yuki looked genuinely surprised at his response. "Oh no, it's okay!" he reassured quickly. "I was in the car too, and they said when I was thrown out I hit my head, because I can't remember anything from before. So, it's like I never knew them, you know?"

"You don't remember your parents?"

"No, nothing!" Yuki said earnestly, looking more concerned about Touya's reaction than upset. "That's probably why I'm so spacey a lot of the time, uh-huh."

Touya's own head was spinning with the gravity of the conversation he had suddenly found himself in. "You don't know them at all? Don't you grandparents keeps photo albums or tell stories or something?"

"No," Yukito said. "They don't have any pictures in the house anywhere, and they are traveling the world together right now, so they are not here to tell storied. I do not think they even have a cell phone either. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't even really know their names."

"Your parents' or your grandparents'?"

"Neither, really. Is that weird?"

Touya was in outright shock by now. "A little, yeah, but that's okay! What matters is that you're alive, right?"

Yuki's face brightened considerably. "Yes, I think so. They actually said I was really lucky; apparently when the windshield broke, it cut the seatbelt at the same time the car door got opened, and I fell out right before the car was smashed. It gave me a really funny looking scar, though… Does To-ya want to see?" he asked, reaching for the hem of his turtleneck and making to pull it up, looking a bit surprised when Touya stopped him.

"That's okay," Touya said quickly, wondering once more why his face felt hot. Then, something occurred to him suddenly. "If you don't remember anything from before showing up here, how come you know so much about the crash?"

"They told…" Yukito stopped, looking genuinely puzzled, and then slightly concerned. "I… don't really know. That's kind of scary, I guess…"

Touya paused, wondering how much longer he should allow this conversation to continue before deciding to put a stop to it now. "Doesn't matter. You wanna help me make a cake or something?"

His friends' face brightened instantly at the idea of food, and, placing the picture of Touya's mother back on the table respectfully, bounded into the kitchen happily. Touya followed him a moment later.

Somehow, there was a silent agreement between them never to bring this subject up again.

* * *

Sorry if Yukito's lines seemed inconsistant. I tried my best, and hope to better address that in the next chapter. And now the zen for the day: Tiny ten week old puppy plus long stretch of hardwood floor equals hours of endless amusement. Try it sometime.


	3. The Witch

Well, it took longer than I would have liked, but... I would like to think I have an excuse. Between moving, finals, and dealing with family crap... no I have nothing. I haven't been completely lazy; I've been pounding out plot stuff, so I know have three distinctive story arcs: Nadir, Eclipse, and Zenith. I've got an outline for the entire first arc, Nadir, and I've been working on details for the second arc, Eclipse, so it should flow more smoothly, and I've been re-studying all of Cardcaptor Sakura with a more analytical and skeptical eye, though most of the skeptism mostly comes from recent Tsubasa plot/timeline/character twists, admitedly, but I did notice some interesting things, and I've been, well, 'researching' another, non-CLAMP-related series I hope will be usable in the second and third arcs. XD Nadir dictionary definition now up on the first chapter, if anyone wants to take a look. Only a day late. XD Anyway, I hope this chapter has been worth the wait for whoever's been waiting for it; I can now honestly promise to keep a better schedual from now on!

* * *

Even Touya was amazed with how his life seemed to be turning out. Aside from regular study sessions and after school activities with Yuki, it soon became tradition to give Yuki a ride to school every morning on the back of his bike after a rather irritating escapade during the sports fest concerning a ladder and an awkwardly placed bag of marbles. Though Yuki had tried many times to convince him no permanent damage had been done, he didn't protest the free ride and had dropped the subject within a week, instead greeting Touya every morning at the corner where their streets met with a wave and a cheery greeting.

Nothing else of great importance happened for several weeks, not counting the fact that Sakura's slightly creepy friend, Daidouji Tomoyo, had tried to include Yuki and himself in her strange costume fetish for a while. The worst had been when Yuki had been spending the weekend with them after the 'sports fest incident' (Sure Yuki was technically fine, but his grandparents were still gone and Touya had stubbornly insisted Yuki was not to be by himself for extended periods of time, even if he had to drag out the spare futon on his own, which he had ended up doing anyway even though both Yuki and his dad had offered to help), and the Daidouji child had realized they hadn't brought any of Yuki's clothes with him other than his gym uniform. She had disappeared from their house with an overly delighted smile and what Touya swore to be an evil cackle, only to reappear a few hours later with several bodyguards and a full wardrobe in tow.

As soon as she walked in and found Yuki still in his gym uniform (Touya had tried three times to offer him some sweats, but the words always came out wrong and twice it sounded like he was demanding Yuki to strip and the third time like something straight out of a porno, so he had finally given up. Luckily, Yukito had figured out his good intentions and had just laughed at him until he finally brought out some cake.), Tomoyo had let out a gleeful squeal and dragged the silver haired boy upstairs despite Touya's best protests. Where the girl had gotten so many rabbit and moon themed clothes that fit Yuki so quickly, Touya didn't really want to think about too much, and he had been quick to try to put a stop to it, only to be very happily reminded that unless Yuki went home there weren't many alternatives. Nevertheless, as soon as the girl had left he had awkwardly presented his friend with several pairs of his smaller sweats, and he had noticed with no small amount of pride (and maybe even something else Touya hadn't quite defined yet) that Yuki had changed as soon as he had been given the opportunity. Still, he had the feeling that even though he had done his best to hide the 'collection' in the deepest, darkest corner of his attic, Yuki had still managed to keep a pair of pajamas covered in bunnies that he had been particularly fond of. In fact, actually, he was quite sure that over time he had seen Yukito wear those pajamas several times, but had somehow managed to convince himself to tactfully avoid the subject every time he walked in on his friend like that.

Other than the occasional oddity that just came with living, it wasn't until about the first week into November that he started noticing something odd. Yukito would suddenly come up to him out of nowhere with a worried expression to ask something along the lines of "Is To-ya okay?" or "Something is wrong to To-ya?" or worst of all, "Does To-ya not want to talk to Yuki about something?", and now, while Yuki had already become a constant in his daily routine life, suddenly there was barely a moment without him. Logically, Touya knew he should be kind of irritated by now, and yet Yuki's odd behavior only worried him. Something had to be making his friend act so strangely, and he was determined to find out what. So the next time Yukito had asked him if something was wrong he had shot the question back at his friend maturely. Yuki had looked surprised for a moment or two before he had broken into one of the warmest smiles anyone had ever directed at Touya.

"That's so similar to To-ya," he smiled. "Yuki just wants To-ya to know Yuki can listen if he needs to talk about some subject thing."

And then he promptly changed the subject before Touya could ask him why his language skills had seemingly deteriorated past the point of pronouns and what he had heard through the rumor mill.

For all his logic and reasoning skills, Touya could not figure out what was causing Yuki to behave like that, and Yuki would just act as though he didn't understand Japanese whenever he tried to bring it up, ("To-ya needed to work on his English," he would say sweetly.) so Touya started keeping a journal of everything that happened. Ignoring the curious whisperings of his classmates ("Has Kinomoto-kun taken up stalking?" he was sure he heard one girl ask her friend.), because Yuki was quick to put a stop to it ("To-ya has just taken up keeping a diary for a while," he had informed them cheerfully, and really, was that honestly any better?), Touya had first started by listing everyone Yukito talked to before he asked if something was wrong. After about a week and a half of not finding any particular pattern, Touya had decided to try something else and started listing all the people he talked to first, but the list had been so painfully covered in mainly nothing but bad doodles of snow bunnies he had been forced to give that up within a single school day and had begun listing anything even remotely influential.

Even paying almost excruciating attention to detail, it still took an overly dedicated spirit haunting the restaurant he was currently employed at for three weeks before he finally made the connection. Never the less, the problem still remained; how did you tell your semi-recently met friend you were not just staring off into the abyss of nothingness but could actually see and communicate with spirits? He thought about it long and hard, and eventually decided that while he would have liked to ignore the entire subject until much, much later, Yuki was genuinely worried over something this was causing and that was enough to merit a serious discussion.

"Yuki can we stop at the park on the way home?" he asked, finally mustering up the courage on the walk home from school one day. "I need to talk to you about something."

Yukito's face like up brilliantly before breaking out into the most enthusiastic combination giggling and nodding fit Touya had ever seen, to the point that he actually worried about the well being of his friends' neck. The walk to the park wasn't long, and Yuki tried several times to make small talk, but each attempt at friendliness was just met with a curt nod of the head and a small noise of acknowledgement. Not that he was trying to be rude to his friend, but most of his attention was focused on currently attempting to think of the best possible way to start the conversation he had in mind. As bad possibility after worse possibility rushed through his mind, Touya almost walked right past the very spot he had suggested and had to backtrack a few steps to join Yukito on the swing set.

They were both silent for a long time as Touya struggled to put together a way to begin, and several times it looked as though Yuki wanted to say something before deciding against it for whatever reason, finally giving up trying to start a conversation entirely and just started swinging dejectedly. Touya was suddenly very glad the park was largely empty.

"Yuki," he said after a while. "You know how sometimes I kind of stare off at nothing for no real reason?"

Yukito had even walked out of class one day to find To-ya talking to himself once or twice. He skidded to a stop and nodded at Touya earnestly.

"Well, I'm not." When Yuki looked confused he cleared his throat and tried again. "Staring at nothing. I'm not just staring at nothing."

Yuki nodded up at him expectantly, and Touya realized that beating around the bush would get him nowhere fast. He was quickly learning how little of an understanding Yuki had when it came to the meaning and usage of the word 'subtle,' so he tried again.

"Do you believe in ghosts, Yuki?" he sighed.

Surprisingly, Yuki laughed. "Don't know," he smiled. "Yuki has never personally seen one, but that does not mean they do not exist. There must be more to death than nothing, so there could be, yes. Why does To-ya ask?"

Well, at least he wasn't completely closed to the idea.

"I can see them, Yuki. Ghosts, spirits…" He frowned when his friend didn't respond, stumbling on clumsily. "My mother could see them too, but not a lot of other people can. That's why our classmates always say I'm so weird, but I swear I'm not just talking to myself, but to them."

When he finally worked up the courage to look at his friend, Yukito was staring at the ground thoughtfully, apparently considering his words deeply. Touya chewed on his lip nervously, suddenly very worried about bringing this up.

"Yuki, I'm not making this up," he tried one last time. "You believe me, right Yuki?"

Yukito blinked up at him in surprise. "Of course Yuki believes To-ya!" he said, and Touya barely suppressed a twitch at Yuki using his own nickname in a sentence. "Why should Yuki not believe To-ya? To-ya never lied before, so why would To-ya start now? Yuki was just thinking…"

Touya hadn't been aware of how nervous he had become while waiting for his friend to speak until all the tension left him in one big rush. "Don't talk in the third person," he said. When Yuki looked confused he elaborated, "Don't say 'Yuki' to refer to yourself. Just say 'I.' What were you thinking about?"

Yukito kicked his swing off the ground again, nodding. "All the times To-ya was being funny, To-ya was just helping someone dead?"

"I suppose you could say it like that, yeah," he said, frowning a bit. "Why?"

"I am so relieved!" Yuki beamed up at him, laughing a bit when Touya nodded in approval at his proper pronoun usage. They would work on the whole 'To-ya' use later. "I was really worried To-ya was tired of me and was wanting to think of a nice was to tell me to leave!"

It was Touya's turn to be surprised this time. "Why the hell would you think that?" he blurted.

Yuki flushed, shuffling his feet in embarrassment, but only after properly reprimanding Touya ("You should not make curses, To-ya," he scolded softly. "Curses will always come back to get you." Touya nodded but had to respond with a gentle, "Different kind of curse, Yuki.").

"I had just.. talked with classmates, and they said To-ya never liked to spend a lot of time with people before…" Yukito said, fidgeting a bit. "And so Yuki thought maybe To-ya was just nice to Yuki because Yuki was new and had a funny accent…"

Touya scoffed, reaching over and ruffling his friend's hair affectionately. "Don't be stupid, Yuki," he said, deciding to ignore the pronoun slip for now. "You should know I'm not like that. I should have told you what was going on sooner, but everyone else that I've told before either thought I was crazy or just making it up to get them to leave."

"Then… Both of us were just being silly, huh?" Yukito laughed. "Let us promise not to keep any more silly secrets, okay?"

"Pinky promise," Touya said, feeling admittedly childish as he held out his hand.

"Pinky promise?" Yuki repeated, looking confused.

"It's an old tradition; there's supposed to be a vein in your pinky finger that goes straight to your heart," Touya explained. "So it's supposed to be the most unbreakable of promises, because it's connected right to your heart. Sakura and her friends use it all the time."

"Oh, I understand," Yuki beamed, reaching over from his swing to intertwine their little fingers together. "This must be like that 'blood brothers' ritual in America, right? Well, we can make a pinky promise then."

Smoothly ignoring the fact that he had absolutely no idea what Yuki was talking about (something he was gradually getting better at as time went by) and answered with a stiff nod of his head. "Pinky promise," he agreed, bobbing their joined hands up and down once as his mother had done with him as a child. "No more stupid secrets."

And he meant it.

* * *

Time passed almost alarmingly fast, and before he knew it, he was already picking Yuki up for school one morning in the first week of December. How the year had gone by so quickly was beyond him, Touya mused to himself as he slowed his bike to a halt after being waved down by his overly-enthusiastic friend.

"Good morning, To-ya!" Yuki cooed, hoping on behind him and balancing on the wheel pegs, gripping his shoulder for support.

"You sure are cheerful today," Touya commented, sighing when Yuki laughed at him. "More so than usual, I mean."

"I am!" his friend gushed, struggling to pull something out of his school bag with one hand without loosing his balance ("Careful Yuki," Touya had chided gently. "You're gonna fall if you're not careful."), before coming up with a slightly abused piece of paper and trying to put it in front of Touya's face for him to read. "My grandparents sent me a letter!"

"I need to see so we don't run into anything," he reminded his friend gently. "I'll read it later, if you want. What'd they say?"

"Right, sorry." Yuki pulled the letter back and clutching it to his chest tightly, leaning his head against Touya's shoulder with a sigh of contentment. Touya felt his face flush hotly and had to convince himself he was focusing on his driving. "They explained to me about birthdays, and they told me when my birthday is. And guess what! They said they were going to come home for my birthday! A day or so late, truly, but still!"

Touya frowned, having to remind himself once more how very little Yukito truly knew about normal life. "So when's your birthday?"

"December twenty-fifth; this month!"

There was a brief pause as Touya blinked and Yuki gushed pure gooey light from over his shoulder, then, "… Yuki that's Christmas."

"… What's a Christmas?"

"Your grandparents didn't tell you about Christmas?"

"Maybe they don't have Christmas in England?"

"Actually I think Christmas comes from England."

"Oh."

"Well, it's a major holiday in winter," he said. "I'll loan you a book on it."

"Okay."

"… How old are you turning?" Touya tried lamely after a moments beat.

"They said I was turning sixteen," Yuki grinned.

"Your grandparents said that?"

"Yes, in the letter."

"Oh."

"How old is To-ya?"

"Sixteen. I turn seventeen February twenty-ninth." He would explain what a leap year was later.

"So, that means that for about two months Yuki will be the same age as To-ya!" Yuki laughed, humming his contentment into the back of Touya's shoulder.

"So your grandparents are really coming here for your birthday?"

"That's right. They're going to try for the day after, but said it would probably be two days."

"I'd imagine it'd be hard to get a plane on Christmas, so I guess that's understandable."

"Do people travel a lot then?"

"No. But hardly any planes are going out either, I guess. How long are they staying?"

"I don't know. They didn't say."

"Well, they better stay long enough to visit the house their grandson is spending so much time at. I'm sure Sakura and Dad'll be thrilled to meet them."

He could practically feel Yuki's smile through his school uniform. "So will I."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for the rest of the trip to school, each in their own thoughts, and Touya realized he had absolutely no idea what to get for Yukito.

* * *

As promised, Touya had given his friend an intimidating stack of his little sisters' Christmas books after school. As tempting as it had been to watch Yukito bury himself in a mountain of children's books, he had work after supper and didn't think his classmate could carry the mass of books home by himself and had walked him home early. The next day Yuki had shown up to school jabbering excitedly about all the different Christmas traditions animatedly, which he endured with a pained silence, just as he endured the tiny class representative chatting eagerly to the class about the upcoming culture fest. He didn't even hear what theme they eventually decided on (An animal-themed café? Is that was they suggested?), because he was so lost in his own thoughts.

He had a very bad feeling about something - Christmas? Yuki's grandparents coming? The culture fest? - but he couldn't tell what was causing it, and so he brooded and stewed in his thoughts uselessly in his seat.

Then again, maybe he was just worried about the fact that he had no idea what to get Yuki for Christmas.

* * *

Later that week as he was returning from an errand for his father, Touya happened across one of the weirdest places he had never noticed before. He was in one the more traditional neighborhoods on the other side of town from where he lived when he stumbled across one of the oddest houses he had ever seen. It was on a small, narrow lot with a brown wooden fence stretching around the front, an elaborate crescent moon resting on top of the front gate.

The house itself was strange, with a deep, traditionally slanted roof and darkly painted wood with sliding doors grandly decorated with designs and paint. The mere aura of the place was what caused him to stop and stare, however, though it seemed otherwise empty.

He wouldn't touch it, though; even the thought of brushing up against that dark fence made him uneasy, so he refused to move any closer and just stared at the house in an angrily confused manner.

Touya wasn't sure how long he stood there glaring at the empty lot, but suddenly the front door was sliding open and two creepy little girls were skipping out into the yard - one with long blue hair and the other in pink - doing some strange dance and singing some strange song ("Watanuki is in love, Watanuki is in love!" they chorused, and Touya was sure he heard some form of angry screaming from inside the house) for nearly a full minuet before finally noticing Touya's existence just outside the fence.

"Oh, a customer!" they chorused together, dancing up to the fence gate hand-in-hand. "Would you like to come inside to meet the mistress?"

"Customer?" Touya frowned. Mistress? The hell? Had he somehow stumbled into a harem or something?

"But of course!" the one on the right chirped.

"This is a shop!" the other said.

"A shop?" This really wasn't making him feel any better, and he took another step backwards warily.

"A wish granting shop!" they chorused together again, hovering just behind the gate.

"The mistress grants wishes!" the blue-haired one sang.

"Any wish you can have!" the pink on echoed.

Touya had always been a skeptic, and that trait was shining through marvelously now. "Of course," he copied dryly, crossing his arms defensively. "Any wish possible. I suppose there's no magical catch to this either."

"Oh no catch," one girl grinning.

"But it's not free," the other girl smiled.

"For every wish granted," they sang together, linking hands tightly and giving him what he thought was one of the most evil smiles he had ever seen. "There is a price of equal value to be paid."

"Che, I knew it."

"So would you like to come inside and meet our mistress?"

"No, I'll pass," he said, turning away. No way was he walking inside some freaking whore house.

"Oh?" The girls looked as though they would have gladly dragged him inside, but for some reason they lingered just inside the gate as they thought this over for a minuet or two before seeming to reach the same conclusion at exactly the same moment. "If the customer will not come inside, then we will bring the mistress out!"

And before he could protest they had squealed their approval of the plan and bounded back inside the strange shop/house. Logic and reason told him he should leave - he really didn't want to meet with the master hooker - but something about the stupid lot kept him from leaving. He couldn't have stood there too long, only one couple walked by, and soon the front door to the house was sliding open again and out walked the absolutely most indescribable woman Touya had ever seen.

She was long and thin with lengthy black hair pulled up in an elaborate bun, her skin-tight dress doing very little to cover her very prominent curves and deathly white skin, the extravagant air about her doing nothing to tone down her very wicked smile. For a moment when she locked her eyes on him, he had a fleeting screech of pure panic that rushed down his neck painfully - an ohshitqueenwhore kind of feeling - but the way she moved herself was much too regal, too royal, to ever even be clumped in the same dictionary as 'whore'.

"Ah, who is this?" she purred, gliding over to him with a dangerous glint in her eye and a scary twitch to her smile. "What's this about refusing to come into my lovely shop? Are you one of those stubborn trouble makers, by any chance?"

For a moment or two all Touya was able to do was gape at her stupidly - he'd never seen so many curves on a woman before, especially not so indecently covered! - and when he was finally able to think again he took several rapid steps backwards with his hands up in front of him defensively.

"Listen lady," he said quickly, deeply wishing she didn't lean her top half over the fence to talk to him better, "I'm sorry for any confusion here, but I honestly have no idea what any of you are talking about."

"Oh? Did you not listen to Maru and Moro?"

"Maru and… Moro."

"That's right."

"As in…"

"Maru-dashi and Moro-dashi, yes. Cute, isn't it?"

"No. It's really not."

"Ah well," she shrugged, and he sorely wished she hadn't. "You still caught on quicker than my worker did, you pervert. So, did you not listen to them or are you just too stupid to understand?"

Touya bristled angrily, crossing his arms characteristically. "I heard them," he growled.

"Oh, so it's the second option then," the woman mused, twirling her elegant pipe around her thin fingers bemusedly, waving off his protests before he could truly say anything in his defense. "This is a shop that grants wishes, if the proper price is paid."

"See, there's the problem," he said, turning around to start walking away. "I don't carry any money on me. And, I don't have any wishes."

"You're lying."

"Excuse me?" He was facing her again now.

"You're lying, though whether it's just to me, or you're going far enough to lie to yourself is the question," she said, letting out a puff of sweet-smelling smoke, never once breaking her gaze away from his. "You see, no one can find my shop unless they have a wish. The fact that you are here at all is a sign of hitsuzen at work. Also," she smiled again, straightening up to her regal pose once more, and he wondered why her eyes had to be blood red. "My shop doesn't deal in money. Now, are you coming in or do I have to figure out your wish from over here?"

They stared at each other solemnly for several long minuets, neither backing down or wavering in their resolve, before he finally nodded stiffly.

"I'm not going in," he said finally.

"Fine then," she laughed. "Maybe you won't need to enter yet, anyway. You look like you're in high school… Tell me; has your class gotten any foreign exchange students lately, by any chance?"

Touya stiffened visibly, giving her a brief, jerky nod.

The woman smiled again, but this time it wasn't quite as demonic or bloodthirsty to look at. "I see…" She seemed to be thinking about something deeply for a moment before turning her attention back to him, the deadly smirk returning. "Let me guess: you need to find a Christmas present for that special someone, right?"

"Excuse me?"

"I was right, wasn't I?" the woman squealed, clapping her hands together happily. "After all, you look like the type to have troubles Christmas shopping."

"What? No!"

"Of course, of course. Maru, Moro, come here!"

And before he could even start to protest, those horrid little girls were dancing out into the yard again.

"Watanuki is still busy right now, so I need you to fetch something from the storehouse," the dark-haired woman said, bending down to whisper in their ears exactly what she wanted. They nodded enthusiastically before bounding off with not-quite-sane giggles as the woman straightened up and returned her gaze to him with a wicked smile. "What did you say your name was again?"

Touya frowned. "I didn't."

"Would you care to share?"

He really didn't want to, but for some reason… "Kinomoto Touya."

She nodded. "And the person receiving this gift?"

That was just too much. "I'm not giving you that persons' name!"

"I'm just asking," she said, raising an elegant eyebrow in his general direction. "I'm not even writing it down. Besides, I envy anyone who can find a person just by their name."

It was true; it was nearly impossible to track someone down from just their name without going directly to the government. But still, this woman…

"Tsukishiro Yukito," he ground out finally through gritted teeth.

She seemed a little surprised for a moment before her face fell back into an impassive expression. "Tsukishiro… What kanji do you use for this?"

"I'm not spelling it out for you!"

"Of course," she smiled. By then, those two girls came running back from inside the depths of the shop, carrying a lumpy brown paper sack between them. The woman -witch?- smiled, taking the bag from the girls and turning back to face Touya with a grin. "I think this will make the perfect present for the person you have in mind right now."

Touya frowned. "What is it?"

The witches' smile grew. "To find out, you have to accept our deal," she cooed. "Do you accept?"

"What do you want from me?" he scowled. "You said something about payment earlier, so what do you want from me?"

"It's already been paid for," the girl-witch grinned. "You've given me some very valuable information I've been listening for for a very long time."

Touya was getting a VERY bad feeling now, and his expression probably reflected this if the woman's laughing was any indication.

"Don't worry," she laughed. "This was made to go with you for this purpose. Because I was only holding it for you, the price isn't as high. Then again, if you keep acting so stupid, I might feel more inclined to start thinking about charging a holders' fee. Now, do you want to take it or not?"

"You're trying to tell me the whole reason I found this crazy shop is to pick up a gift?" he asked, striding forward to reluctantly accept the package. "That seems a little anti-climactic, don't you think?"

"It would be, if that were the only reason for you being here," she laughed, handing him the bag over the fence. "However, I get the feeling this is more like fore-shadowing for your later experiences at my shop, Kinomoto-kun."

He gave her a blank stare as she held onto the bag a little longer than was strictly needed, giving him a level, searching look.

"Yes," she mused softly. "I think you and I will see a good deal of each other in the future, if I'm not mistaken. Well, be safe."

And before he could ask what she meant, she had vanished back within the depths of the strange house-shop with a flourish of black silk and a slightly drunken maniac-giggle.

So Kinomoto Touya was left to walk home with nothing but a bad feeling and a mysterious bag - it was lighter than he thought it would be, and the paper pushed in easily wherever he pressed against it, leading him to assume the object inside was either tall and skinny or just soft and squishy - that he was supposed to give to his best friend, and more than a few questions. He wasn't sure if refusing to enter the witch's shop was a good choice or a bad one, but nearly none of what she had said made any sense at all.

And then there was this package…

The aura of the item felt normal enough, if not slightly soothing, so he didn't think taking it into his home would be a bad thing. But he didn't just want to give it to Yuki without even knowing what it was, and he wasn't going to open it the front yard of the witch who gave it to him. Then there was the method of his 'payment'…

Everything about what that woman had said on the subject alarmed him, he thought as he turned around and started walking home. Something just wasn't right about it What if he had accidentally said something that put Yukito or Sakura in danger? Or worse, what if this mysterious package was the possible danger?

Settling his jaw firmly and striding forward purposefully, he made up his mind to try not to worry about it till he at least knew what the thing was.

He would open it as soon as he got back to his room.

* * *

Well, I hope none of that was too, well, awkward. XD I would actually like to personally thank Letters-Of-Insomnia dearly; You're support has really, really meant a lot to me in posting this, and, well, I can't believe I was empty-headed enough not to say earlier but I really admire your work! I'm a huge fan, and I'm really, truly flattered that you are hopefully entertained by something of my own. I hope I can continue to earn your support in the future! -bow-


	4. The Culture Fest

Well, quite frankly I'm proud of myself for getting this up on time. I'm currently at my cousin's house in Kansas. I live in California. XD Between moving and plane-hopping, I was really worried I was going to be a day late, but on my clock, it's still Monday as I'm posting this! Late at night, a bit, yeah, but still Monday, so I made it! The chapters are getting longer, too... This one's longer than the last by nearly 1,000 words. Cool.

Oh, by the way, I have no idea how Christmas is celebrated in Japan. No idea at all. I thought I knew a little from watching CCS through a few times, but... Dunno. Now I'm not so sure. So, if someone out there is familiar with Japanese-Christmas traditions, and it's nothing like this... I'm sorry? Uh, can we chalk it up to the 'AU' factor again and call it a day? XD By the way, I'm sure people have been noticing a distinct lack of CCS series-relevent events occuring, but that is once again due to the AU-ness of the story, and not my own laziness (for once). It does have a plot, just not one that revolves around Clow Cards.

* * *

Despite the stream of endless worry that had been plaguing him the entire walk home, the suspicious brown package, once opened, truthfully contained something very… un-suspicious.

It was a stuffed rabbit.

A simple, stuffed white rabbit with soft, fluffy snowy fur and two big, shining golden buttons for eyes. There was a little upright facing silver crescent moon with wings engraved in its chest, the right ear flopped forward a little more than the left, the insides of the ears a soft pink velvet, and there was a perfect little white puff for a tail.

The rabbit sat innocently on his desk as he thoroughly examined it, it's pre-stitched mouth pulled into a sweet little bunny smile and it's small cheeks tinged just the slightest shade of pink in the afternoon sun shining through his bedroom window, though whether it had been made like that or if the tint was from being well-worn he didn't know. He stared at it, and it stared blindly back, sightlessly and sweetly accepting whatever fate it's creation had brought it to.

The bottom line was that no matter how hard he looked at it, it was perfect. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it in anyway; there was no unpleasant aura about it (in fact, there was no aura about it at all) and it was perfectly crafted and well put together. In the end it was just a beautifully made stuffed rabbit.

An adorable, snow white stuffed rabbit with a crescent moon marking, big golden-amber eyes, a sweetly accepting smile, and a less-than-present expression. That he had picked up from a witch. Normal..? (He had the sudden urge to put tiny glasses on it, but decided it would be much too much trouble to try to even find glasses for a stuffed animal and pushed the impulse stubbornly away.)

In the end, he had carefully wrapped the rabbit back in the brown bag he had picked it up in and hid it far under his bed, deciding to think on it later. It wouldn't do for Sakura to find a cute stuffed animal in his room, after all, and he wanted to watch it for a while to make sure it really was normal before even considering giving it to Yuki. The whole thing was just too suspicious for him to rush into without thinking, he concluded as he shut and locked his bedroom door from the hallway. It would be best to observe it for a while before acting.

And anyway, it was his turn to cook dinner.

* * *

The whole culture fest was, in Touya's opinion, one big disaster after another. Well, nearly.

Getting ready for it was bad enough, because it appeared that he was one of the few people strong enough to be put in charge of hauling the large, heavy items his class decided they needed around campus while Yuki helped with the decorations and costumes.

Truthfully however, the costumes themselves were part of his unhappiness with the culture fest, so he strongly suspected he would 'accidentally' manage to completely obliterate them should he be left alone in the same room. He had been too busy 'thinking' when they had first announced the theme, so he had no idea who had first suggested it, but he swore to hunt them down and strangle them slowly. Whatever idiot had thought it would be cute to have the class dress up as their 'inner animal' for the café seriously needed to be put out of their misery. Touya, of course, had outright refused to even be associated with such a thought, so Yuki had cheerfully informed him one day the class had gotten together and voted on what animal he should be and was making the costume as a team so he wouldn't have to 'worry' about it. He would have flatly refused to go to the whole thing, but attendance was mandatory, and though he didn't really want to admit it, he kind of wanted to see Yuki's reaction to his first culture fest.

That didn't mean he didn't find himself dreading life and all that it encompasses the day the damn thing actually came. He even left his bike at home and walked to school in order to (childishly) lengthen the trip to the dreaded event. Luckily, Yukito hadn't asked why, though he had broken out into a serious laughing fit that suggested he knew anyway before thoughtfully turning the conversation to anything and everything but school for the rest of the walk. When they arrived the school was still in the final stages of being decorated with flying ribbons and banners, so it was kind of a challenge to push their way through to get to the classroom. Upon finally making their way into the room, Touya quickly found that the situation was just as horrible as he hadn't dared to fear.

These 'costumes' as it turned out, consisted of an outlandishly cute café uniform coupled with the tail, ears, and face-paint of their chosen animal and a specially chosen accessory.

Yuki had, predictably, been dressed up as a white rabbit, complete with floppy white ears and a cotton-puff tail and a bright red ribbon tied in a bow around his neck. Touya didn't really want to admit it, but his friend looked absolutely adorable, smiling absently up at him as he fiddled with the ribbon blankly. As for Touya himself…

For some reason, the class had apparently decided that he looked like a rather irritated black cat, complete with a bell-encrusted collar. Though he wasn't sure how he managed to do it, because he was sure the ears had been standing up when they were put on him, but the next time he could bring himself to look in a mirror the ears were lying flat against his head in agitation, only adding to the illusion. However it soon became apparent that stalking around the café looking like a very pissed, growling big cat only truly impressed the fangirls of his own class (though Yuki did seem to be laughing at him a little more than normal, he noticed, but that was forgivable for some reason), and after about an hour of scaring away customers from their café the class representative decided maybe he should try working in the kitchen and sent him to the back.

Which of course meant he ended up being errand boy again, but at least now fewer people could see him. By extension, that meant fewer people to laugh at him as well.

The day passed quicker that way, and soon it was his break and he was showing Sakura, her slightly creepy friend Tomoyo, Yukito, and his own dad around the culture fest, which was so energy-consuming on its own that he was almost, but not entirely, glad when the time came for him to return to their classes' café, Yuki following behind him loyally, excitedly chattering about the fireworks the third-years were planning for later. Before long there were only a few hours left in the day, and the kitchen/café needed more disinfectant, of all things, and he soon was on his way to the supply closet. Wrestling his way past a mini-horde of culture fest costumes and props to get into the tiny excuse for a room, Touya was hesitant to remove his foot from keeping the door propped open for fear of being locked in. Still, having long since come to terms with his luck (or rather, the lack there of), he was not entirely surprised at all to find the particular brand of disinfectant requested making itself at home on the top shelf in the very back of the closet.

After a moment or two of muted cussing and awkward stretching and twisting, Touya quickly came to the conclusion that he was not going to be able to reach the object he needed without leaving the doorway. And so he slowly and reluctantly stepped away from the door, holding his hands up in front of him in hopes of catching it quickly should the stack of crap outside in the hallway decide to cave in and attempt to shut him in the closet.

But nothing happened, and the door seemed absolutely determined to win his trust no matter how many death glares Touya sent it over his shoulder as he stretched up to grab the bottle or sterilizer he had been sent to retrieve. He was tall, but he couldn't quite reach it, and with a sigh of remorse began struggling to find a way to climb the shelves up high enough to get what he came for, and so he ended up being too busy brooding over how stupid his damn cat costume made him look to hear the two girls from another class coming down the hallway.

"Oh, here's the ladder," said the first one. "But it's buried under all of this junk…"

"Let's just pull it out from the bottom; it'll be quicker than trying to move all of this crap," the second girl said.

"But that might knock all this over; it'd be a huge mess…"

"Who cares? We're not going to have to clean it up, and as soon as we bring back this ladder our shift is over," the louder girl said, already clambering into position. By now Touya had heard them, but was in no spot to stop them, half straddling one of the higher shelves and hanging on for dear life with the bag holding the bottle of disinfectant that started this whole thing clenched between his teeth. "Ready?" he heard the girl say. "One, two…"

No bottle of cleaner-starch as worth getting locking in a closet, he decided, spitting out the bag and letting it fall to the floor with a clatter. "Hey, don't-"

"Three!"

There was a loud noise of a mountainside of semi-worthless crud avalanching to the floor and the slamming of the door closing as the closet suddenly became very dark. Touya let go of his grip of the shelf in surprise, falling to the floor and landing on his backside very painfully with a shout of shock, though it was drowned out by the noise outside and the horrified screech from the first girl.

"See, I told you!" she squealed, but he could hear they were already heading down the hall, dragging the ladder behind them. "You never listen to me! Look at that huge mess!"

"Relax, I already told you we don't have to clean it up," the other said, and he could hear the sounds of the metal ladder being carelessly dragged down the linoleum hallway fading, even as Touya scrambled to his feet quickly, slamming his head into some low-lying shelf, and cursing, tried again more gingerly. "Now come on, I wanna go eat soon."

And then they were gone down the hallway and back to their own homeroom, and no amount of shouting, cussing, and door-slamming from Touya could get their attention again.

Touya himself was rapidly discovering that he was well and truly stuck, and even his most heart-felt attempt to bust the door down in every imaginable fashion did very little towards freeing him from his potentially claustrophobic prison. He wasn't sure how long he spent alternately kicking, slamming, and punching the door before sinking into a deep sulk, but by the time he came back to himself enough to try to check his watch, it was only then he remembered his watch didn't light up and it was still too dark to see and broke out into another cussing fit that had to have lasted another five minuets at least.

Finishing his latest brooding session, Touya finally decided that it would be best to stop and look at the situation from a calm, collected perspective, as was his traditional path. He quickly scrambled to his feet once more, feeling above his head this time to avoid any painful collisions as he struggled to force his eyes to adjust faster as he scanned the closet for anything even remotely helpful.

The door swung outwards, he reasoned, but there was a giant crap-stack outside, so even if it did swing inwards he would just be crushed anyway. He didn't carry or even own a cell-phone, and he had no idea how long it would be before someone came looking for him, if anyone came at all; most of his old classmates would most likely falsely accuse him of skipping (honestly, you skip a school function once or twice and suddenly they all think you do it all the time) and just ignore the fact that he was missing. Not even his own family would notice he was gone until after sundown; even then it was unlikely they would think to look in the janitors' closet in the first floor west supply wing. So, he was most likely stuck in here until the cleaning crew came by tomorrow, unless….

Yuki! Of course Yuki would notice he was missing, and Yuki would know he didn't skip, and Yuki would come looking for him! But then again… Touya was sure Yuki still hardly knew his way around the school, so even if he wanted to look, without Touya's help there was next to no chance Yuki would ever actually find Touya.

So, ever the self-made-optimist, Touya decided to give up on all hope of an external rescue before the following morning at best, and since there was absolutely no way he was just going to sit in a smelly, cramped closet until then, he began looking for a way to free himself. He didn't really expect anyone else to come to help him, never had, so he would keep taking care of himself like he always had. Still, after what had to have been close to an hour of searching, stumbling, bumping and groping every item he could think to find in a supply closet, and even a few he didn't really want to think about, Touya had to admit he was very, very stuck. This wretched closet was nothing at all like the prison cells in the movies, with nothing but completely useless crap, and the air vent was tucked neatly in the least accessible corner of the ceiling and was hardly large enough for him to stick his head through, not that he'd tried (because it was locked, too) of course, but at least it allowed him to stop worrying about that whole 'suffocating to death' issue. So, in the end, he found himself slumped upright against the door, his forehead pressed grumpily against the wood, kicking limply at the door at regular intervals in pure frustration. He was starting to wish he had spent just a little more on his watch and gotten one with a backlit screen, and he was just vowing he would as soon as he set foot out of this godforsaken closet when he heard something he had yet to be so glad to hear.

"Did silly To-ya loose his way somehow?" he finally heard a familiar voice sing from the end of the hallway. "They told us he left, but we know To-ya better than that…"

"Yuki!" he shouted, slamming fervently at the door once more. "Yuki what the hell are you singing?"

"Oh?" It sounded like Yuki had already been moving on to the next area of searching, but - thank god - was coming back. "Is the rabbit-white hearing the moon whispers or did silly To-ya hide behind the cardboard penguin statue?"

A penguin cutout? This whole time he'd been stuck a damned cardboard penguin? That had to be an all-time low. "Yuki does what you're saying even make sense to _you_ anymore?"

"Not really," he heard Yukito laugh, closer now. "But maybe it was an old children's rhyme from somewhere, because the tune just got stuck in my head. Well, part of the tune, anyway. But I can't remember the words, so I made some up!"

"And they have to be making fun of me?" Touya felt the twitch under his eye start up again full force.

"Silly To-ya, just because it is about To-ya does not mean it is making fun of To-ya," Yuki cooed, right outside the door now. "Ah, the wing is wedged under the doorknob. I will open it…"

"No, I got it…"

It all happened very quickly; at the same time Touya pushed, Yuki pulled, the door finally swung open (Ah, it was bright out in the hallway damn it!), Touya stumbled forward, Yuki tripped backwards, and the hallway was filled with the quiet thud and soft 'of' of two bodies lightly colliding with the floor.

Touya had to clench his eyes shut at first, because even though it was early evening by now, the hallway was still brighter than that cursed cubby hole he'd been stuck in, but when he came back to himself enough to look, he almost wished he was back in the closet.

Yuki was sprawled flat on his back, glasses askew and big golden eyes wide and slightly glazed, one pale hand lightly gripping Touya's sleeve where the other boy's hand had landed next to his head. Touya himself had landed on top of his friend, his knees straddling his classmates' hips and his arms planted firmly next to the others' shoulders.

It could have been worse, the back of his mind reasoned even as both of their faces lit up brilliantly red, and at point-blank range there was no mistaking the blushes for anything but what they were. It could always be worse. But honestly, at the moment and in the situation he had found himself in, he could hardly see how.

"Oh," Yukito tried feebly a moment later, though he made no attempt to try to move them, and Touya was suddenly very aware of just how close their faces were.

"Yuki…" he stuttered, not sure what he wanted to say but damn sure he was going to say it. "Yuki, I…"

Whatever he had been about to reveal (though he himself wasn't sure what _it_ was) was cut off by a loud popping bang from outside, causing both of them to jump a bit and glance rapidly to the windows, (and Yuki to grip his shirt a little tighter, he noted with some satisfaction) before letting out a soft sigh in unison.

"The fireworks…" Yuki breathed as they stared out the hallway windows to the early evening sky. "They started the fireworks…"

Touya felt his shoulders sag slightly in relief, letting his forehead rest against the cool tile next to Yuki's neck for a moment in a vain attempt to cool his face down (though it was doing very little good when Yuki started absently petting the back of his neck with the hand that wasn't gripping his sleeve in what appeared to be an unconscious act of comfort; the touch was so light Touya had to wonder if Yuki even realized what he was doing.) before a thought occurred to him and he quickly pushed himself upright again. "Yuki," he grinned, scrambling to his feet while dragging his friend up with him by the wrist. "I wanna show you something."

Yukito looked confused, but gave him a little nod of consent anyway and didn't protest being pulled to his feet.

"Good." Touya's grin widened, and then he was off, running down the hallways of the school while pulling his friend by the wrist. Yuki made a little noise of surprise at first, but otherwise followed behind him faithfully, keeping pace with him easily while staring in wide-eyed fascination at the explosions of light outside of the many windows they passed. Everyone else must have already gone outside to watch the fireworks, Touya reasoned as they dashed to the central stairwell through the empty halls, because the lights had already been turned off even as they scrambled up three flights steps. Finally reaching the large metal doors at the top, he paused with one hand on the handle, the other still gripping his friend's wrist, sending the lighter-haired boy a shaky smile (which Yuki returned brilliantly without a moments hesitation) before pushing the door open with his shoulder and leading the other out onto the roof.

"Oh…" Yuki breathed behind him, in absolute wonder of the suddenly much closer fireworks show, twisting his arm a bit to grip Touya's sleeve appreciatively, causing the dark-haired boy to grin even wider as he slowly led his friend across the flat roof to a bench installed for breezy afternoon lunches.

"I thought you might like it here," Touya smiled, sitting down on the bench and giving the back of his friends' shirt a little tug to get him to do the same.

"Yes, very much!" Yuki nodded hurriedly, flopping onto the bench next to Touya, neck still craned backwards in an attempt to take in the entire sky at once.

Touya nodded, and they spent the rest of the fireworks show in silent awe, though for some reason Touya often found himself watching his friends' face more than the actual fireworks. When the show was finally over it was well past sunset, the full moon already risen high in the sky.

"… I would have been mad if I had missed that," Touya finally broke the silence a while later.

"How long was To-ya stuck in that closet?" Yuki laughed, not taking his eyes off the bright moon.

"I have absolutely no idea," Touya scowled, crossing his arms in a huff. "For Christmas, get me a watch that lights up, will you?"

"What?" Yuki gave him a very surprised look, looking a little concerned for a moment. "Is that what To-ya wants really?"

"No," Touya snorted, leaning back and turning his attention back to the sky. "But apparently everyone needs one, just in case."

"Oh," Yukito said, glancing briefly at his own lack-of-watch before turning his gaze back to the moon. They were both quiet for another minuet or so, before Touya sighed standing up and stretching casually.

"You'll catch a cold if we stay up here much longer," he said, pulling Yuki to his feet gently. "Come on; let's go find Sakura and my dad so we can go home and get some hot chocolate or something."

Touya stuffed his hands back into his pockets (because it _was_ cold out) and without looking to see Yukito's reaction headed back to the stairway to find his sister and father.

He didn't have to look to know Yuki would follow him.

* * *

Winter break passed remarkably quickly, and soon it was nearly Christmas. Considering Yuki's grandparents weren't expected until at least the day after Christmas, Touya had made it a bit of a personal challenge to see how many times he could kidnap his friend in as many different ways as possible during the week before the holidays. He was actually pretty proud of his new record, and it seemed to amuse Yuki, so he kept up this new 'game' and before he knew it, Christmas Eve had come. Touya had insisted fervently his friend was to stay with them on Christmas Eve, and Yuki hadn't put up much of a fight, so when the day before the holiday came, he had abducted the other one last time, and had even remembered to instruct Yukito to bring an overnight bag this time. The rest of the day was spent with Sakura and Yuki trying to help his dad alternately finish decorating the many gingerbread houses and attacking the house with tinsel and glitter, and dinner wasn't even remotely awkward, so he spent the remainder of the evening teaching Yukito to play chess, and therefore, by automatic extension, Sakura as well. Once Yuki could remember which piece moved where he did fairly well, though he could never remember the names of the pieces (he kept calling one of the bishops the high priest, and insisted rather religiously that is was never to leave the king's side), but Sakura was a lost cause. Yukito quickly took pity on her and took her to reread one of the many Christmas books he had discovered to save her from the teasing of her 'horrible meanie Onii-chan,' as she called him. Somehow Touya ended up 'reading' with them anyway, despite her best efforts to shoo him away, while Fujitaka just laughed at them in the background.

When the time came to actually go to bed, Touya had thought Yukito would be too excited to sleep for a while and protest like his sister did, but his friend had just nodded with a logical, "The sooner we sleep, the quicker we wake." and had began helping to clean up. Sakura, though shocked as she was, when faced with this new logic from her not-so-secret crush, could do nothing but nod with fervent disappointment and go up to bed. Touya knew from previous 'sleep overs' with Yuki that his friend always fell asleep quickly, but he was still surprised when Yuki dropped into a deep sleep almost as soon as his silver head hit the futon. Still, it made his late-night last-minuet gift deliveries to the tree that much easier. Quietly gathering the packages from under his bed and carefully stepping over his sleeping friend, holding his breath the whole time, but Yuki didn't wake up, though he fidgeted a bit when Touya left the room before settling down again. Touya was once again very glad both his sister and his father were such deep sleepers.

In the end, Touya had decided to give Yukito the stuffed rabbit. It wasn't because he didn't know what else to get his classmate, it wasn't because the rabbit reminded him of the other boy, and it certainly wasn't because he thought the damn thing was cute, oh no, it was because… Well, actually, he wasn't exactly sure why; maybe he was just curious. And as for Sakura, ever since their mother had died, he had taken it upon himself to keep up the 'Santa project,' meaning he was the one who had put himself in charge of getting and wrapping an unlabeled gift and stashing it under the tree the night before Christmas in the tradition of the grand Santa Story. Luckily, this also gave him the perfect opportunity to hide Yuki's present under the tree as well. And so he quietly deposited both gifts towards the back of the tree, trying to make them as stealthy as possible before heading back to bed. For a moment he was afraid he would wake Yukito up on the way back into his room, but his presence back in the space seemed to calm the boy down rather than disturb him, and Yuki was in a deeper sleep than before by the time Touya had crawled into bed.

Burrowing down into the covers with a soft sigh (he did NOT snuggle, for god's sake!), the moonlight reflecting off the falling snow outside illuminated his room through the gap in his curtains enough for him to briefly study his sleeping friend curled up loosely on the futon next to his bed. Reaching down with one hand to pull the covers up higher over the boy's head and grinning as Yuki cooed softly in his sleep and snuggled into the touch (he was NOT petting Yuki's head, either, was not even thinking about it, not at all), before settling in for a good night's sleep and deciding that maybe life wasn't so bad living after all.

And maybe he was kind of looking forward to Christmas a little bit after all. Just a little.

* * *

Christmas morning, Yuki was awake well before him, but was too nice to try going out for fear of waking him up and had amused himself by shuffling quietly around in his overnight bag. Touya wasn't sure how long his friend had been up, but there was a small wrapped bag with a bow resting innocently on his pillow next to his head when he finally woke up himself.

"Yuki?" he questioned, sitting up and plucking the bag up with him. "What's this?"

"A present, of course!" Yuki laughed at him happily. "I put the other three under the tree while To-ya was sleeping, but Yuki wanted to give To-ya this one separate. To-ya can open it later, if he wants."

Touya raised an eyebrow at his friend smoothly, but put the gift aside for the moment anyway. He'd always thought opening gifts in front of the giver was awkward. "Is Sakura already up?" he asked as he pulled himself out of bed and reached for his bathrobe. It was cold, after all, and Yuki was already dressed.

As if in answer to his query, the sibling in question came stampeding down the hallway with an excited squeal. "Onii-chan, Yukito-san, wake up wake up!" she screeched, pounding at the door loudly. "Wake up, it's Christmas!"

"We're already up, Kaijuu," Touya grinned, deciding a bathrobe wasn't nearly manly enough and pulling on a loose sweatshirt. "If you ever woke up before me it would either mean I was dead or the end of the world."

"Onii-chan, Sakura ga kaijuu ja nai yo!" Sakura screamed, pounding on the door once more for good measure before deciding that since it was Christmas she had more important things to focus on - like opening presents - and dashed energetically through the hall, ignoring her jerkish older brother's calls not to run down the stairs defiantly. Yukito laughed, poking his head out into the hallway as soon as he deemed it safe enough.

"Is it like this every morning?" he laughed.

"Close enough," Touya shrugged, carefully stepping over his friends' things to get to the door.

"Are all siblings like To-ya?"

"I wouldn't know; I'm not 'all siblings'," Touya said, ignoring Yuki's laugh and braving his way into the hall. "Come on, let's go see how much damage the kaijuu can wreak in five minuets."

A scream of "Sakura ga kaijuu ja nai!" echoed up the stairs in response to his statement.

Sakura had already buried herself in a stack of flying wrapping paper by the time they had made it downstairs, Fujitaka torn between busying himself with a cup of coffee and dodging the airborne paper chunks on the couch as he watched.

Yuki had, for some reason, gotten them all new watches, and had been very certain to make sure they all came with backlit screens. Touya had been the last to open his watch, and had given Yuki a very confused look, causing his friend to flush and fidget slightly.

"Yuki was going to get you all something else," Yuki whispered in answer to his silent question. "But then To-ya said every-one needed new watches, so Yuki got these instead. Besides," he said, his voice dropping even lower. "Yuki did not know what to get Sakura-chan and Kinomoto-sensei."

"You know, you don't have to take everything I say literally," Touya said.

"But Yuki wants to take To-ya seriously, always!" Yuki insisted pointedly.

Touya wasn't sure what to say in response, so he just did the first thing that came to his mind: he grabbed his friends' cheeks and pulled, stretching Yuki's face into a comical expression before ruffling his hair briefly and heading back to the tree and digging something out from under it.

"Kaijuu, you missed one," he commented, reaching to the back of the tree to pull out the bag he knew the stuffed rabbit was in to the light. Stepping over his overjoyed little sister and ignoring her half-hearted mumble of self defense, Touya dragged Yukito over to a less easily observed spot before shoving the brightly wrapped lump of a gift at him with a silently dignified blush of embarrassment. Yuki blinked at him, then blinked at the offered gift, then blinked at him again and looked like he was going to continue this process or a while longer, so Touya felt the need to elaborate. "Yuki, it's a gift. You're supposed to open it and then act like you love it."

Yuki nodded, giving him a confused little smile before beginning to carefully unwrap it, somehow managing to not notice Touya's nervous fidgeting. When the rabbit was fully unwrapped, Yukito was gaping at it in open amazement for nearly a full moment before his eyes suddenly fogged up with tears. "T-To-ya…"

"H-hey, if you don't like it…" he stammered quickly, not too sure what to make of this reaction. "Did it… Is that-"

"I love it!" Yuki squealed happily, hugging the small plush tightly.

"…What?" Touya tried again, not entire used to such a blatant show of emotion. "Then why are you crying?"

"Yuki feels bad now! To-ya got Yuki such a pretty gift, and Yuki couldn't think what to get To-ya!"

"Don't scare me like that," Touya sighed. "I thought something was wrong. Look, you got what I told you too, right? So you got a great gift. Now come on, I think Sakura just found her gift from 'Santa'." Sure enough, there was a loud squeal of delight from the living room as the girl opened her 'mystery gift.' Touya rolled his eyes at his younger siblings' antics, dragging the now gleefully cooing Yukito back into the other room by his sleeve, and Yuki situated himself comfortably on the couch happily next to Fujitaka while Touya dutifully went about harassing his younger sister.

For the entirety of the rest of the day, Yuki never once put the white rabbit down. He seemed to be absolutely and completely infatuated with it, and was apparently very determined not to let it out of petting range.

Soon enough there were only a few hours left in Christmas day, and though Touya had done his best to convince his friend to stay one more night, Yuki had gleefully declined, insisting he needed to finish preparing his house. Touya had doubted it; Yuki always kept his house almost unnaturally clean, like the sterile whiteness of an abandoned hospital, and had said as much, but Yuki had just laughed and insisted fervently he _needed _to finish getting the house ready for his grandparents. Touya wasn't sure exactly what that meant, most likely needing to fix up his grandparents' room or something, and had to fold in the end and reluctantly saw his friend off in the early evening, but only after having Yuki promise to call the very second his grandparents arrived. Yuki had cheerfully agreed, and was soon enthusiastically waving goodbye as he walked down the street with his overnight bag slung over his shoulder and the stuffed rabbit clutched lovingly to his chest.

Touya had spent the rest of the day torn between a righteous sulk and 'playing' with his adorable little sister. Soon the day was over and he was climbing the stairs tiredly to his room, closing the door behind himself and examining his now empty room with a dejected sigh. Flopping down on his bed with a huff, he was half-way through reminiscing in great detail every aspect of the days' events when something occurred to him. Sitting up and pulling the prettily wrapped gift from under his pillow (It was almost _too_ prettily wrapped, Touya mused. Yuki should have known better than to choose such a frilly design. Such a frilly thing truly deserved to be started at for nearly three minuets in solemn contemplation, Touya thought, which was what he set himself out to do.) before finally and carefully pulling off the decorative ribbon holding the bag shut.

It was… a pendant? It was small and round, and fit perfectly in the palm of his hand, the sides and back of it made of some metal he wasn't entirely sure was silver, and several markings around the edges suggested it fit into something larger. The front was the most unusual and captivating, however, rounded like a jewel and a deep swirling midnight blue laced with streaks of constantly moving, shining silver, and when he turned the light off later he realized it was glowing dimly. Still, the thing that bothered him the most was the symbol carved on the back: an upright crescent moon with wings, exactly the same as the one on the rabbit he had gotten from the witch. After staring at it blankly for a good few minuets, he reached back over to the bag it had come in to see if Yuki had written a note. He had, and it read:

"Dear Touya,

(At least Yuki could spell his name right, he noted with a snort.)

A strange woman I met in town told me this is a good gift for Touya and gave it to me, so I had it before Touya asked for a watch. I like it because it feels nice, and it's pretty too, so Yuki will give it to Touya anyway like the woman said to. Yuki hopes Touya likes it, too.

Merry Christmas,

Yukito"

Touya spent at least five minuets alternately gaping between the letter and the 'gift', not entirely sure which he was more surprised by. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind who this 'strange woman' was, and it left him with an extremely uneasy feeling in his gut. How the hell did she track Yuki down? How did she recognize him? However what Yuki had written in his note was, well, right. The aura of the thing was very calm and soothing, if not a little bit on the melancholy side, and the constant, gentle swirling of the silver on the front was very comforting to watch. But Yuki wasn't supposed to be able to see or hear anything like that, that was only supposed to be _his_ 'gift', so the fact that his strangely oblivious friend had noticed _anything_ alarmed him, especially considering it had come from that crazy witch-woman, and it was late enough that Yuki was probably already asleep so he couldn't call him to interrogate him.

Whatever, he eventually decided, he would deal with it tomorrow when he saw Yuki again. At least it was here, with him, instead of his friend in case it did something weird. So for right now, sleep was good, and the last thing he thought before turning his focus to sleep was whether or not Yukito's grandparents would look like him.

* * *

The lack of overall public interest in this story amuses me. XD I think maybe it's the summary? Maybe I'll change it later, but now I'm tired. Jet lag, whoo!


	5. The Day After

I didn't want today to be Monday, for some reason. No real reason, I just woke up and was all, "... Daw, Monday." Which is really funny, because my Mondays even this last school year weren't that bad. It was weird. I blame jet-lag. Another massive jump in word count, here. I'm worried that when I actually settled on a good, average size for the chapters I'll think they'll be too short. There are probably some mistakes, but I claim... AU fanfiction protection? XD

* * *

The morning of December 26th came quickly, and the first thing that Kinomoto Touya noticed upon awakening was that he had overslept. If he had been asleep much longer, his little sister might have woken up first and then his perfect teasing record would have been permanently botched.

The second thing he noticed was that the previously soothing and swirling midnight blue and silver front of the 'pendant' his dear friend Tsukishiro Yukito had gotten him from the witch had turned a cold, solid, jet black overnight, and the one calming aura was now no longer, well, calming. Picking it up to better examine it in alarm (it was so _cold_ to touch it almost _hurt_) he quickly came to the conclusion that he had absolutely no idea what was causing this and ended up stuffing it in three layers of socks and hiding it under his pillow. When Yuki called he would ask about it then.

But, until Yuki called he really had nothing to do, so he really just moped about for most of the morning. By lunchtime he was both supremely bored and a little depressed, and still no word from his friend. Usually when he was in such a bad mood as this he could just 'play' with his baby sister until he felt better, but today no amount of teasing really helped his disposition, and then Sakura was off to play with her own friend Tomoyo and he was truly left with nothing to do but fidget about his room irritably. Around three in the afternoon he checked the jewel again, but there wasn't much change - if anything it was a little darker and colder, which was exactly what he didn't want to happen - and still no word from Yukito.

Maybe Yuki forgot to call with his grandparents getting there, his brain reasoned, but his ego shouted back that Yuki would _never_ forget _him_, grandparents or not. He really didn't want to pry or interrupt anything important, his polite upbringing reminded him, but then again, what if Yuki really needed him to call? Maybe it was a really awkward situation and a phone call right now would break up the tension?, the undernourished hopeful section of his subconscious offered. But his 'realistic' side quickly shot this down by reminding the rest of his mind that it was practically impossible to imagine Yukito in _any_ kind of awkward situation, especially one with family, and that such blindly optimistic thoughts should crawl back under the rock that they had come from and _die_. Now the stubborn part of his mind was agitated and decided to stick in favor of the hopeful suggestion, and, being the dominant part of Touya's personality, eventually managed to convince the rest of him that this was the case and he soon found himself stomping off down the stairs to the living room phone, wondering why he was constantly suffering such horrible headaches as he tore the phone off its cradle and savagely punched in Yuki's number. The stubborn part of his mind also kindly reminded him that he was to ignore the fact that he knew the number by heart as he listened to the phone ring.

And ring… And ring… And ring.

While he had been successful in teaching Yuki how to use a phone, he had yet to instruct his friend on how to set up the answering machine, and was sorely regretting that now. Yet another thing he would talk to Yuki about as soon as he saw him. Well, only one thing to do now.

Announcing to his father that he was going over to Yuki's and would be back before dinner as he tugged on his coat and shoes, Touya set off at a brisk pace down the street towards his friends' house, telling himself over and over that all of this had absolutely nothing to do with that witch's' rabbit he had foolishly let the boy take home last night and that Yuki and his grandparents were simply sitting outside in the backyard and couldn't hear the phone. Unfortunately, his paranoid trait was nearly as strong as his stubbornness and he was nearly running by the time he rounded the corner to his friends' street.

Yuki's driveway was empty, but he kind of expected that. After all, who would take a car with them while traveling around the world? But then again, who else would leave their recently orphaned grandson all alone in an empty house in a new country for so long without checking in? Needless to say, Touya's opinion of Yukito's grandparents wasn't that terribly high. Ignoring that fact that there were no lights on, even though his brain was telling him that they were all probably taking a jet-lag inspired power nap - and Yuki probably taking a sympathy nap simply because he liked to sleep - Touya loudly stomped up the walkway and pounded noisily on the door to announce his arrival.

But no one answered, and the usual sound of Yukito running haphazardly through the house to get the door were missing. Touya frowned before pounding again, more pointedly now, squirming a bit when he still got no response.

"Yuki?" he called, more scowling than frowning now as he tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. "Yuki, it's Touya. I'm coming in now," he said loudly, pushing the door open and went inside.

The house was dead silent, sending cold shivers up his spine as he slowly walked into the entry way and swapped his shoes for the special indoor slippers Yukito had gotten for whenever he visited. He wanted to call for his friend again, but the chill in the air kept his mouth shut and throat closed as he softly made his way down the hall and into the living room.

In the middle of Yuki's living room there was a special area where the floor was actually sunken down into a little two foot cube with a table built in the center, made so that a person could perch themselves comfortably on the edge of the square and have their legs easily resting on the floor in much the same way one would sit in an American style chair. Touya had explained that the area was most likely meant to be a heated table, and Yuki had loved the idea immediately, lining the entire square with cushions and draping the table in the cushiest comforter he could find, and that was usually where Yukito could be found sitting whenever Touya came to look for him.

Padding quietly across the wooden hallway into the living room, Touya was mildly disappointed to find that his friend was not currently occupying the space at the table like he had been expecting. Instead, sitting there on the corner of the table, lit up by the warm afternoon light coming through the tall bay windows of his friends living room that so contrasted the chill of the house, was that damn rabbit.

He gave it his most convincing and scary glare, it smiled sweetly back at him, and with a near-silent huff at the disrespectful reaction to his best efforts at being intimidating, he turned to go check the rest of the house when something stopped him. Silently padding back over to the rabbit and the table, he paused for a split second with his hand outstretched in mid-air towards the table with the rabbit before he decided that it certainly couldn't do any harm to try and crouched down on his haunches and lifted up the edge of the comforter to look under.

Yukito was huddled with his back propped up against the far corner of the square, his knees pulled up to his chest and arms draped on top of them, head buried in his arms and glasses lying on the ground next to him. He didn't move when Touya lifted the comforter, and made no indication of planning to do so anytime soon.

"Yuki?" he tried again, softer this time. "Yuki? It's Touya. Is something wrong, are you hurt?" He couldn't see the others expression, but he didn't look hurt. Still didn't hurt to ask, though.

Yuki shook his head no, silently.

Touya frowned. "Did something scare you?"

Yuki shook his head no again, but didn't move.

"… Do you want to come out now? It doesn't look very comfortable under there," he tried once more.

Again, Yuki just shook his head no.

Touya was in a bit of a dilemma, he decided. He didn't know what had happened, Yukito wasn't talking (which in itself was reason enough to be frightened, if he thought about it), he had no idea how to fix the situation and really just needed some time to think, but he couldn't really just leave his friend under the table, no matter how much his old instincts told him to make a momentary retreat and gather his wits.

So, he went with the first choice that came to mind that wasn't completely trust-betraying, awkwardly crawling under the table with a nearly pained sigh of loss of dignity and settling down next to the boy hesitantly. Yuki didn't say anything to object - didn't say anything at all, actually - and he didn't know where to even begin at trying to start a conversation - Yuki was usually the one who did most of the talking - so they just sat in silence for a long time before a quiet effort finally came from the other teen.

"… I was cold," he finally heard Yukito struggle to whisper into his folded arms, his voice cracking slightly in a way Touya had come to associate with crying. "I was cold, and it always seems so _warm_ under here…"

Touya made a soft noise of acknowledgement, inelegantly reaching over to pet his friends' head in a floundering attempt at comfort. Yuki seemed to appreciate the effort at least. There was another pause before, "… How long have you been under here?"

Yuki didn't answer, just shook his head again.

He shifted uneasily about for a moment, before clearing his throat uncomfortably. "Look, Yuki, are you sure you don't need to talk to me about anything?"

Yuki shook his head no, but thrust his left arm out in front of Touya's face, handing him the slightly crumpled piece of paper Touya hadn't realized he'd been holding. Touya raised an eyebrow questioningly, carefully taking and straightening the paper as Yukito curled back up into his previous position.

"Dear Tsukishiro-kun," Touya read silently.

"The London police force regrettable informs you that your grandparents were killed in a fatal car accident on the way to the international airport. As we were unable to find a will or any other living relative, all of their possessions are to be passed on to you. In concurrence with Japanese laws, as you were of legal age on the day of their deaths, December 25th, you will not be requiring the appointment of a guardian. Enclosed is an item found on the deceased's bodies. We sincerely apologize for your loss."

And hand signed at the bottom of the otherwise typed letter was scrawled, "Interpreted by Hiiragizawa Eriol."

Touya stared at the paper blankly for a moment or two before a pitiful whimper from the curled-up form of his friend brought him back to the present. "Oh Yuki…" Carefully placing the letter on the floor as if worried it would explode if jostled, Touya determinedly shoved his pride aside long enough to pull the shivering boy into an awkward hug as he struggled to find the right words to say.

Luckily Yuki didn't seem to mind his silence too much and just kind of flopped over into the embrace, not really leaving his tight curl of a position. Touya frowned at the lack of reaction from his usually responsive friend, resting his chin lightly on top of the boy's silver head, running his hand with minor embarrassment up and down the others arm in a lame attempt at comfort he had used with his sister whenever they had been alone.

"Yuki, you're shaking," he mumbled a moment later.

"It's cold," came the slightly muffled response. Well, at least Yuki was talking again. That was a good step in the right direction, he hoped. "It's really, really cold. I… think I should feel sad, right? Or should I be angry? But I don't think I can… It's… it's too much. Yuki doesn't… Yukito can't understand!"

Yuki was babbling now, he sighed, tugging his friend closer and tilting the other's chin up gently, forcing Yuki's glassy eyes to meet his.

"Hey," he called softly, making sure he had the boy's attention as much as possible before continuing. "Listen, it's okay to feel upset. You were really counting on this, and it's always shocking to hear a family member died. It's normal to feel upset, Yuki. It's…" He paused, stumbling over the next word in that sentence for a moment before shoving his way past it determinedly. "It's _human…_ to feel upset about this."

Yuki gave him a wavering, glazed look before nodding and cuddling back into him with a little sniffle. Touya exhaled softly again, letting his head thud back against the wall as he went back to gently rubbing his friend's back. There was another long pause as Yuki seemed to grapple with this new information before finally pulling himself out of his self-induced human rubber band ball enough to shove something small and cold that Touya hadn't realized Yuki had been clutching into his free hand before burrowing closer into the reassuring embrace.

Touya raised an eyebrow mutely, placing his chin back on top of his friend's head as Yuki snuggled deeper into his chest, shuffling the boy about so he could lift his arm up and see wheat Yuki had handed him without disturbing him too much. "Is this what came with the letter?" he asked.

Yukito nodded, curling closer to him and clutching his shirt shakily. Touya frowned, lifting he object up closer to his face for inspection in the dim light under the table.

It was a necklace. Yukito had been clinging to the thin, delicate golden chain, and that was what had been shoved into Touya's hand, but the shape of the necklace itself was what shocked him.

It was an upright crescent moon with wings. The moon itself was some kind of gold, and the wings were some sort of shining silver. The inner circle of the crescent was hollow, with strange little notches around the inside he only noticed when running his fingers around the ring, the center of the moon outlining his palm neatly. The wings were long and elegant, and the whole thing was just a little too big to tactfully wear out in everyday public situations, but just holding the thing was enough to make his skin crawl and his throat clench.

Three things.

Three things with the same symbol. Unsteadily reaching out and cautiously setting the necklace down on top of the letter, Touya was proud he managed to keep his hand from trembling too much before turning his mind back to his friend.

Yukito still seemed to be in a state of shock; he was silent, but quivered slightly at every quiet breath he took in. Touya sighed, hugging the shaking body closer.

"It's gonna be okay, you're gonna be fine," he murmured into the other's hair. "Nobody's gonna think bad of you if you wanna cry. That's okay."

Yuki nodded stiffly against his chest, and a minuet later he actually did manage to bring himself to cry. It wasn't loud or obnoxious, just a quiet little pitiful sniffling accompanied by a soundless flow of tears as the boy shuddered uncontrollably in a way that suggested he really had no idea what he was doing and if it was really okay.

Touya just sat where he was, trying his best to help his friend through the 'healing' session he himself had suggested, hugging the boy as tightly as he dared to without fear of crushing something - Yuki always seemed so _delicate_, and while he had nothing against crying (though he was rather proud of the fact that he himself had sworn off crying since he was seven) this whole episode did very little to improve that image he had in his mind - trying to bring whatever awkward comfort he could offer to him. Later, when he thought back on it, that day was the first and only time he had ever seen Yukito cry.

He wasn't sure how long they sat there curled up together under the table. The warm heat and hushed coziness of the area lulled him into an introspective respite, and eventually Yuki cried himself out and fell asleep tucked snuggly against his chest. He sighed, shuffling his hold on the boy slightly closer and resting his cheek against the other's hair. Comforting his friend had been surprisingly close to how he had dealt with his little sister, but considering how childishly Yukito acted most of the time, he wasn't really all that taken aback to find his reaction to an emotional crisis reflected how he would respond to Sakura. But still, somehow his feelings towards Yuki were very different from what he felt for Sakura, very different from what he had felt for anyone else before, which was very confusing.

Giving up his quest for emotional enlightenment for the moment, or maybe he was just tired of listening to his brain reason circles around itself, Touya carefully and slowly lifted his arm to check his (new) watch to find the time, realizing with an inner groan that it was almost dinner time, which brought up a new problem in itself. What was he supposed to do with Yuki now? He couldn't leave Yukito here; this whole day had been a crushing blow to the boy, and he couldn't stand the thought of simply leaving just to have Yuki curl up under this table again by himself for the night. He didn't think abandoning Yukito alone in this house all night would be a good idea - it wasn't that he thought the other would do anything… rash, no, it was just the sheer amount of psychological damage that would occur from spending the night isolated and frightened huddled under the living room table after hearing about the deaths of your only relatives that worried him - and he didn't really want to stay in this house long enough to make sure his friend was truly okay, so that really only left on option.

Shifting the little body in his arms around a bit once more, he gently tapped on his friend's head to try and bring him back around. "Hey, Yuki," he called gently. "Yuki, wake up."

Absolutely nothing about Yuki changed, but Touya knew he was awake.

"You okay?" he tried again. "Feeling better now?"

Yukito nodded jerkily, but made no attempt to move them, so Touya tried for him.

"Good, let's go home then," he said, gently setting Yukito up to the side so he could crawl out from under the table. God, but he was stiff. He was halfway through struggling to stretch his shoulders out when he realized his friend was not coming up to join him. "Yuki?" he questioned, lifting the comforter to peek back under the table. "Are you coming?"

Yukito had curled back up to his previous position, staring blankly at the letter and necklace that sat on the ground between them. Touya paused for a split second, before reaching back under the table to hold out his hand in silent offering. Yukito blinked at his hand briefly several times - he probably can't see very well without his glasses, Touya thought - before he hesitantly reached out to slowly accept the offered help with a shaky smile, scooting around the letter and crescent moon and picking up his eyeglasses before Touya hauled him out from under the warmth of the table.

"Good," Touya nodded, tugging the boy to his feet and straightening his glasses and clothes briefly before ruffling the other's hair quickly. "Now come on; I bet you need to eat by now."

Walking Yuki home was nearly physically painful. Watching the boy flinch away behind him whenever a car zoomed by almost hurt, so he did what he could to soothe his uncharacteristically skittish classmate by ruffling his hair and giving him a gentle push forward. Yukito seemed to appreciate the gentle reminders of reality, sending him a pitifully strained smile whenever he came back to himself, but it still seemed like a small eternity before they managed to make it back to Touya's home. Sakura was still at Tomoyo's house, and his father was already in the kitchen finishing dinner, but Yukito looked completely exhausted and worn out, so with a hurried explanation to his father that he would explain later Touya ushered the boy upstairs to his room and dragged out the futon again. He made sure his friend was calm and secure, the duffle bad he had been smart enough to remember to bring close by just in case, before trotting back downstairs to better rant about the situation to his father.

Fujitaka was sympathetic with the 'problem', and didn't mind his son's friend staying with them for a few days; Tsukishiro-kun was always very quiet and polite, and truthfully he was just glad his son was finally socializing with someone his own age. They both agreed that since Sakura was due to come home soon, it would be much too gauche and traumatic to force Yukito to sit through dinner, so Touya took a tray of food up to his friend as soon as it was ready.

Yuki was huddled on the futon quietly when he came back, staring fixatedly at the stuffed rabbit he must have hidden in the duffle bag when Touya wasn't looking. He frowned, placing the tray of food on his desk and kneeling down next to the boy cautiously.

"… Are you hungry?" he asked after a brief pause. "I brought food."

Yukito nodded but didn't move his gaze from the cheerily smiling stuffed animal.

"It's… the same thing," Yuki whispered, shakily reaching out to lightly press against the silver crescent moon on the rabbit's chest with one hand, the other gripping at his shirt over where his heart would be. "It's exactly the same…"

Touya, thinking his friend was thinking about the necklace he had received - and by connection the fate of his grandparents - had silently stood up without a word, walked over to where Yuki had discarded the ribbon that had been tied around the rabbit's neck, and had carefully re-secured it, making sure the bow was covering the silver design on it's chest before ruffling his friend's hair affectionately. Yukito gave him a vaguely astounded look before leaning into the touch and turning his attention back to the toy.

"… Is it bad?" Yuki mumbled softly a while later. "Is it bad that I think I'm the most upset because I just wanted to know? I don't know, so I wanted to… Yuki thought they would be able to tell Yuki, but… Is that bad?"

"No, of course not," Touya said quickly. "No, that's not bad at all."

He thought he should say more, say something significant to ease his friend once and for all, but no words came, so he sat where he was and just gave the boy a good pat on the head. Yukito seemed to hear all the things he couldn't say, as usual, and gave him a slightly less unsteady smile before reaching out and hugging the rabbit tightly. Touya grinned, pleased, and pulled the tray of food down to the futon.

"Good," he said. "Now shut up and eat."

They spent the rest of the evening in relative silence. Touya found a couple of books he thought Yukito would appreciate in his father's study, but by the time he got back to his room Yuki had already changed into his modest pajamas and was curled in a half-upright position on the futon, flopping slightly to the side occasionally as if he were already half asleep. Touya, realizing his friend was probably both emotionally and physically exhausted, had called it a day rather early and had quickly gotten ready for bed himself. Once in bed and ready to drift uneasily into dreamland, however, he quickly discovered that he would not be sleeping anytime soon.

Yukito may have been exhausted beyond recognition, but apparently trying to sleep in such a dark room virtually alone proved to be too much. Touya could practically feel the other boy quaking and trembling from across the room, though Yuki made no noise. He didn't think that Yukito had suddenly developed a fear of the dark, so he assumed this was about something relating to his grandparents and politely pretended not to notice at first - after all, he remembered what a mess his entire family had been during the time right after his mother had died. But after nearly ten minuets of listening to his friend having a veritable melt-down, Touya couldn't take it anymore and rolled over to face the boy.

"Yuki, get over here now; you're sleeping with me tonight," he said sternly. He could almost imagine the look of pure shock on Yukito's face.

"T-To-ya?" Yuki stammered a moment later, and it was only then he realized how wrong that could be taken.

"You're sleeping up here on my bed tonight," he tried to clarify, then added in a softer tone. "It's chilly and I don't want you catching a cold down there."

Neither of them really bought that line; Yuki had spent the night on the floor on colder nights than this, but he really couldn't think of anything better to say. Luckily, neither of them seemed to mind, either, and after a momentary pause and a tentative noise of compliance, Yuki could be heard quietly getting up and padding over to him timidly. Touya scooted over to make room for his friend, turning over to face the other way and was suddenly very glad it was dark because his face abruptly felt _very _hot. It was slightly awkward, and Touya had to be very certain to make sure absolutely nothing was touching, but at least Yuki wasn't shaking anymore, and the boy was asleep within minuets. This was good, but also slightly bad, because in his sleep Yuki curled up into a tight ball pressed closely to his back, and while it made his own breathing speed up exponentially for a while, he could tell it calmed Yukito down substantially, so he left himself to drift. Somehow he managed to turn himself back over to wrap one arm protectively around his friend in his daze, he realized in one of his last conscious thoughts before sleep, which was exactly what he was trying not to do. But then what the hell, his very last waking thought said, if it made Yuki happy after a day like this, it certainly wasn't hurting anything.

That was the last night Yukito ever slept on the floor.

* * *

Waking up the next morning was awkward, to say the least. Somehow, in their sleep they had managed to curl quite snuggly around each other into a position that could easily be mistaken for… well, _snuggling,_ should anyone walk in. Touya was awake first; Yuki was still tucked securely under his chin and sleeping lightly by the time he had decided that this was be a Bad Spot for his father (or, God forbid, Sakura) to find him in. Untangling himself was the scary part, since Yuki had always been a light sleeper, and really didn't exactly want Yuki to wake up and find them in this position either, but somehow he managed to replace his body with an actual pillow under his friend without waking the other boy up.

Yuki slept soundly through the morning, and showed no signs of waking up to greet the afternoon either, so eventually Touya woke him up to eat, simply because he knew how badly Yukito's body needed a decent and constant food supply. Yuki remained muted and downcast for most of his waking time, never speaking much and largely keeping turned inward to himself, almost as if his personality had momentarily been switched off due to shock, though he retained enough of himself to be absolutely terrified whenever he was separated from Touya for longer than five minuets at most. So for the next week Touya did very little; he didn't think it would be very productive to drag the traumatized boy around town just so he could go back to work early for money he never really used, and leaving his friend alone was not an option.

Still, Touya wasn't exactly a grade-A psychiatrist, and under his careful tutorage Yuki seemed to be making very little progress; if anything, Touya worried his friend was actually getting worse, so when New Year's Eve came he decided (with the help of his father) that it would be in the best interest of the boy to go to a festival, as per tradition. That evening, after much frantic searching, he had managed to find one of his smaller yukata from a couple of years ago for Yuki to wear, since he was sure Yuki didn't want to run home to get his own, if he even owned one.

It really didn't suit Yukito at all; it was much too dark of a color and was still too big for his friend, but he didn't have enough time to put it through the washing machine or tailor it at all, so he just tied it extra tight around the boy. Yuki was strangely compliant and hushed as he finished getting them ready and followed his family down the street to the festival, however it was hard not to get caught up in Sakura's childish enthusiasm for the event, and as Fujitaka followed her off to find Tomoyo, Touya put himself in charge of chaperoning Yuki. The evening flew by quickly, and in a few hours they were both in significantly better moods and each carrying several prizes from various booths. Yukito was still slightly more subdued than normal, though it was a great improvement from his earlier lack of personality, which relieved Touya monumentally, however he figured there was one last thing he could do to improve his friend's disposition and gently pulled the boy out of the shrine to a mostly abandoned hillside close by.

"To-ya?" Yuki questioned softly, following behind him loyally while he looked around for the perfect spot to sit. "What is To-ya doing?"

"You'll see," he responded, tugging the boy down to sit next to him once he had found a suitable place next to a pleasantly placed tree. Yukito flopped down quietly on the ground to his left, staring up at the moon absently and then turning his attention to the tree they were sitting beside.

"… It's a peach tree," Yuki said finally, giving Touya a strange look. "To-ya put us under a peach tree on a full moon…"

Touya clearly didn't understand the significance of this, so he simply shrugged. Yukito looked greatly moved.

"The peach tree, the full moon, and the white rabbit…" Yuki mumbled softly a moment later, his big honey-golden eyes wide as he counted something off on his fingers intently. "Just like… I dreamed that… To-ya puts all the pieces together?"

"Yuki, what are you talking about?" Touya was very confused by now, and maybe a little bit scared for the metal welfare of his friend, but Yukito look more like he was on the verge of having an epiphany rather than a nervous breakdown.

"Then… what I dreamt…" Yuki snapped his attention back to Touya suddenly with the clear intent of revealing a very important new revelation. "To-ya, I dreamed--"

There was a high, clear ringing noise, like the loud knelling of a high-pitched bell, causing them both to jump in surprise, before Yukito slumped forward with a glazed look, and Touya had to lurch forward, gripping his friend tightly by the upper arms to prevent him from landing on his face.

"Yuki?" he called worriedly, barely glancing up at the horizon when the fireworks he had been waiting for started with a bang and burst of red light. "Yuki, are you okay?"

He felt Yukito jump a bit at the first eruption of the fireworks, before the boy sat up and gave Touya a dazed look. "Of course Yuki is fine," he replied, giving Touya a painfully absent smile that reminded him of the first day they had met. "Of course Yuki is fine. To-ya is here, after all." He then turned his less-than-present attention back to the sky with a small grin. "Fireworks! Yuki loves fireworks! Yuki is glad To-ya remembered," he hummed, snuggling up against Touya's side appreciatively.

Touya, honestly, had no idea what to say, so he said nothing, staring down at the top of the boy's head with a wide-eyed look of his own. He was kind of scared, some part of him said, that something might really be wrong with Yuki, even though he seemed calm now. Still, no words would come to him, so he just gave his friend a good pat on the head, ruffling his hair fondly and continued vainly searching for words as a slightly nauseous feeling of pure anxiety started bubbling up sickeningly in the lower part of his stomach.

"Look, To-ya," he heard Yukito mumble sleepily against his chest a moment or so later during a particularly bright flash of purple. "A butterfly. Yuki did not know they could make fireworks to look like butterflies."

Touya never did find out what dream Yuki had been trying to tell him about. Later, he always regretted not asking.

* * *

After that night at the festival, Yukito had largely returned to normal, though there was now a noticeable air of slightly refined maturity that had not previously existed around the absent minded and clueless boy that had transferred to Touya's school at such an odd time during his first year of high school that signified a subtle change of character. Yuki was quieter and softer spoken now, and had a look of gentle understanding in his eyes whenever he looked at someone, and his previous boundless and out-going enthusiasm for learning was now more reserved and withdrawn.

Yuki was growing up, Touya had realized suddenly. Yuki was growing up and he wasn't sure what to do about it. This was the day he never wanted to see for Sakura, and while Yuki certainly wasn't his baby sister, he still wasn't sure how to handle this. He didn't understand change, never had, and did not like it, and while it had been hard enough to get used to Yukito as a part of his life, he had suddenly gotten to depend on him as a constant and wasn't sure what he would do if Yukito was now able to move on and rely on other friends.

But Yuki was still Yuki, even if he was less of a wide-eyed, innocent child than he had been before, and if anything he had become more dependant on Touya than ever.

After that night at the festival, Yukito had gently insisted that he was fine to go back to his own home. Touya had vehemently protested this, but caved in the end as Yuki quietly stated that he thought there were a few things he needed to come to terms with. Though Touya still had not been very fond of this idea, and had wanted to insist that he himself was to spend the night there with Yuki, just in case, but he didn't know how to invite himself over and Yuki seemed determined to try and figure this out on his own, so at the end of the night he ended up walking home with just his father and his little sister and a strange sensation in his belly. He wasn't sure why he had such a hard time going to sleep that night, but he ended up convincing himself it was the temperature and finally piled up several more heavy blankets to counteract the sudden coldness of his bed.

Truth be told, part of his unhappiness might have had something to do with the sudden fear that he wouldn't see Yuki for the remainder of their winter break. This quickly turned out to be an invalid concern, because Yukito showed up early the next morning with the borrowed yukata wrapped prettily and a bag of homemade cookies as thanks. In fact, Yuki made it a point to make sure they met up at least once a day, and usually those meetings tended to last all day.

Soon enough it was time to start their second year of high school as winter break quickly came to an end, which meant the traditional class shuffle. Touya had never previously been worried the day of the class shuffle; he'd never had to be concerned about being stuck with friends before, so he's always just gone where they sent him. But now he was genuinely nervous as he explained to Yuki what the class shuffle was as they looked for their names on the lists orientation day. Thankfully, however, the teachers and school system seemed to have taken pity on him, and Yukito was placed in the same class as he was. When the seating chart was handed out, they had even been gracious enough to place him between the window and Yuki, so he really had nothing to complain about, a bit of a school-experience first.

After school orientation and club sign-ups (He had signed up for the soccer team again, and Yuki still wouldn't sign up for anything officially, but he did agree to start helping the archery team anytime they needed an extra person. Touya had been proud of himself when he was only mildly surprised to find that Yuki was nearly a competition-level archer; in fact, he was probably even less surprised than Yuki was himself.), Touya actually did follow his friend home, just to be sure. Yuki didn't seem to mind at all, so he really didn't feel too bad about what could have easily been seen as a very rude thing. Yukito's house really hadn't changed since he had last been over, but if anything the aura of the place seemed warmer and more… real.

As he sat in Yuki's room looking over their new textbooks (or he was trying to, anyway) as Yuki was down in the kitchen getting snacks or something, Touya was busy not focusing on the books (it would be more entertaining to go over them with Yuki there, anyway) when a new addition to the walls caught his attention. He knew Yuki's grandparents did not have anything hung up on the walls for decorations, or even just any kind of decorative item anywhere in the house, so he was a little surprised when he looked around his friend's room for the first time of the new year and noticed a few things were different.

For one thing, Yukito had hung up a picture Fujitaka had taken of them on Christmas day: Touya had tied a ribbon in the shape of a bow on top of Yuki's head, and had apparently just said something extremely angering to Sakura, and the picture had caught her mid-leap in the air, causing Touya to half-adapt a defensive stance and Yuki to look gleefully oblivious, hugging his stuffed rabbit joyfully. Touya had not been very fond of the picture, but apparently Yuki had liked it, and it did make the house look better.

Yukito had also taken the stuffed rabbit Touya had given him and placed it subtly on top of his pillows in a sentry-like fashion, though the stuffed animal was much too… cuddly looking to be intimidating in any way.

However, most surprising to him, was the fact that Yuki had hung the crescent moon necklace he had gotten in his grandparents' death letter up in his window over the bed like a charm. Touya was still staring blankly at it when Yukito came back into the room, a tray full of snacks balanced precariously on one arm as he fumbled with the door, dutifully devouring some unfortunate bread roll at the same time.

"Hey, it was manjuu buns To-ya is scared of, right?" Yuki asked sweetly, shrugging out of his school-issued blue blazer as soon as Touya took the food tray from him, straightening the white button-up shirt underneath fitfully.

"I'm not afraid of manjuu buns, Yuki," Touya corrected sternly, setting the tray on the bed with a huff. "They just… make me a bit uncomfortable."

"Of course. Well, Yuki brought melon bun and sandwiches instead. Should I also make curry?"

"Not now. Yuki, what is that doing there?" he asked, pointed at the necklace hanging innocently over the bed.

Yuki blinked where he was pointing obediently, staring at it blankly for a moment. "That? I liked it; it is almost like a good luck symbol for Yuki, and Yuki had just read about things called dream catchers somewhere, so…"

"A good luck symbol?" Touya repeated incredulously. "If anything that thing is a sign of bad luck, Yuki, not good luck! Just look at all the places it's showed up!"

"I did," Yukito responded, kneeling down next to the tray of food to rummage out a tea pot and cups, pouring it calmly. "To-ya gave Yuki a snow rabbit with it on it's chest, Yuki gave To-ya a special pendant with it on the back--"

"Both of which were presents from a witch!" Touya interrupted abruptly.

"That necklace was a gift from my grandparents," Yuki continued, unfazed.

"It wasn't a present! The English police found it on their dead bodies! They could have known it was an evil sign! Maybe they weren't going to give it to you at all," Touya interjected harshly. "That thing just reeks of bad luck, Yuki."

"I don't think so."

"Damn it Yuki, that thing is a death gift! That sign has done nothing but signal bad luck, just think about it! How can you think a death gift brings good luck?"

Yuki just shook his head mutely, refusing to meet his gaze.

Touya deflated a bit, running a hand through his hair with a pained sigh. He wasn't mad at Yuki, after all. "Please, Yuki, just get rid of it. Get rid of that necklace, the rabbit, just… burn everything with that symbol on it and scatter the ashes to the wind for all I care. Just get rid of it, please."

Yuki stared at him pitifully for a long, strained moment before looking away guiltily. "I can't," he whispered finally.

"Why not?"

"Because…" Yukito paused, stumbling over his words nervously. "Yuki has a mark just like it, too."

Touya felt his mouth go dry. "Where?"

Yuki tapped his check once quickly right over the heart, before beginning to fumble quickly with the buttons on his shirt to show his friend. "From the car crash that killed Yuki's parents. I told you it gave me a funny scar, remember?"

Touya did remember, but that didn't make him any less prepared when, sure enough, right above where Yuki's heart was, the same upright crescent moon with wings was etched into the boy's check in abnormally pure white scar tissue. It was even roughly the same size as that damn necklace.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Touya choked out a moment later.

"I did," Yuki answered quietly, glancing briefly over at the stuffed white rabbit with the same mark on its chest. "At your house. I thought you meant To-ya didn't care."

In Touya's opinion, this just solidified the bad luck symbol - they all meant death, oh god - but he couldn't say that in front of Yuki. "It's okay," he managed after a beat, shakily reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair. Yuki was still Yuki, after all, even if he was marked (oh god, to be branded with such a sign, oh god, not Yuki, never Yuki, no) with the symbol of a death gift. "It'll be okay."

Yukito looked relieved at the familiarity of the touch, smiling up at Touya nervously. "See To-ya?" he said. "It's not bad luck. If it were bad luck, Yuki would have been killed in the car with Yuki's parents. If it were bad luck, Yuki's grandparents would have died before Yuki was old enough and they would have made a guardian take Yuki away! And besides, nothing from To-ya can be that bad of luck!"

Touya desperately wanted to believe his friend on this, and he could see the logic behind Yuki's reasoning, so he nodded, carefully helping the boy fix his shirt again. "It's okay," he said finally, feeling a bit guilty about his earlier outburst. "You're right. I overreacted. I'm sorry."

After all, nothing so closely related to someone as sweet and nice as Yuki could be so evil.

And then, Yukito was hugging him, he realized suddenly, blinking down at the top of the silver head currently buried in his chest, patting the boy awkwardly on the back.

"Thank you, To-ya," he heard Yuki mumble softly into his shirt.

Touya blinked again in surprise, staring down at the boy resting against his chest before smiling slightly, resting his cheek on the other's head lightly and hugging his friend closely in return. He wasn't sure exactly what he was being thanked for; maybe it was everything, maybe it was nothing, but for once he knew what to say. "You're welcome," he mumbled in return. "Thank you, too."

For everything and nothing at once.

No, nothing related to something as good as Yukito could be that bad.

* * *

Well, the next chapter goes back to being happy. Hopefully in exchange for the potential emo-ness we got some good character development. I would also like to thank everyone for reviewing; it's very nice to hear your thoughts and opinions!


	6. The Cop AKA First Valentines Day Event

So, about this chapter... I laugh at it. Very hard. And I'm not entirely sure it's in the good way. I would like to point out that I did warn people that there would be non-CLAMP-related crossovers (and not that it matters right now, but I do consider Code Geass a CLAMP-related thing; I mean, they did the character designs, so it looks like CLAMP, not to mention all the eye-powers. In my opinion, that should count.), and here's where they start. For those who don't recognize the character (I don't know how popular that series really is), he's not mine (God do I wish), and for those who do recognize him, I am using the manga version, not the anime version, so there will be a huge difference. All-in-all, I'm not too sure how good of a job I did this week, but I think th next one's better, so...

By the way, has anyone been reading the last few chapters of Tsubasa? I LOVED 192 with a BURNING PASSION. It was made of so many kinds of awesome. XD

* * *

It was strange, Touya noticed. Yukito was easily one of the sweetest, most likeable people in the entire school, and plenty of people would gladly be very close friends with him. And yet, for all of his personality pluses, Yuki showed very little interest in developing any close, close friendships other than the one he cherished with Touya. Sure, he was cheerful and kind to them all, but Touya never saw Yuki attempting to socialize with anyone else outside of required school or club activities. Touya wasn't entirely sure how to describe the emotion this stirred in his chest, so he just shut it up with a slightly stupid grin and a quiet huff.

That is, of course, until about a month or so into their second year of high school.

He started to notice that Yukito didn't follow him home every single day, and Yuki wasn't always patiently waiting for him as soon as he got off of work anymore. When he had asked Yuki about it, his friend had just smiling absently over his lunch, sweetly informing Touya that he had recently met someone outside of school that he was enjoying talking to. Touya had reasonably and calmly demanded that he meet this new person at once, causing Yuki to laugh at him for nearly five minuets straight, much to his displeasure. He had actually been forced to shove a whole cookie in his friend's mouth in order to shut him up, but Yuki really only laughed harder once he could breath again. Touya gathered very little about this new person (they weren't in school anymore, he had heard they had a job, but that didn't stop them from being some psychopathic high school drop out), but had managed to convince Yuki to promise a few things to make himself feel better: Yuki was never to meet this person anywhere but openly public, respectable areas during normal business hours, Yuki was always to be the one to choose the meeting locations and under no circumstances was this person to be the one to decide where to meet, Yuki was never, EVER to agree to meet this person at their house, and he was never to give this person any personal information, such as address, phone number, or anything of the sorts.

Luckily, rather than being irritated by Touya's fretful hovering, Yukito seemed to find his new rules "sweetly endearing", and this set the boy off into yet another happy fit about 'how sweet To-ya is'. Touya himself was never sure how he felt about these moments, but at least Yuki wasn't mad.

It wasn't until he was walking home from work nearly a week later that he finally met this person for the first time. He had been stewing quietly in his own thoughts when an achingly familiar voice had pulled him quickly from his broodings.

"To-ya!" Yuki called, waving energetically at him from the porch of a café across the street. "To-ya, over here!"

Touya raised an eyebrow at the other boy, calmly trotting over to the table his friend was currently located at. "Yuki? I thought you were going to spend the day cleaning." I thought you were going to wait for me.

"I did," Yuki smiled up at him reassuringly, seeming to recognize the unspoken part of the sentence just as well as the spoke part. "But I finished early, and Yuki knew To-ya came home this way, and while Yuki was waiting, Vash-san came by the road too and decided to wait with Yuki!" he finished, glancing across the table briefly as an introduction.

Touya had, honestly, yet again failed to notice the presence of another person, but as this particular person stood up to greet him, Touya really couldn't help but gape, since it certainly hadn't been because he hadn't wanted to be noticed.

For one thing, he was clearly a foreigner, with pale white skin, golden hair mused to the point of almost-spikes, and almost unnaturally bright sea-green eyes. He was tall and thin, and carried himself with a confident ease that his exceedingly long limbs never should have allowed, and the expression in those too-sharp eyes ad easy smile alluded to a gentle and kind personality despite the outlandish and eccentric way he dressed and spoke.

"You're 'To-ya' then?" the blond grinned, holding out a hand in greeting. "Yukito-kun talks about you all the time, so it's good to finally meet you."

"It's 'Touya', actually," he replied, stiffly gripping the other's hand and shaking it briefly. "Kinomoto Touya." He wanted to see if all foreigners had troubles with his name or if it was just Yuki.

Yuki tsked slightly across the table. "That's what he said, To-ya!" he chided from his seat. Yuki still didn't hear the difference then, apparently.

"Ah, sorry, 'Touya'," the blond laughed, being sure to properly pronounce it this time, even going so far as to stress it with air quotation marks and a grin. So it wasn't _all_ foreigners, then. "My name's Vash. It's nice to meet you in person."

Vash? What the hell kind of name was Vash, he thought bitterly.

"That's an interesting name," Touya said, barely managing a pained, tight smile for Yuki's sake before sitting down next to his friend.

"Well, I guess I'm an interesting person," Vash laughed offhandedly, plopping nonchalantly back down into his own seat casually.

"I was really glad when I saw Vash-san today while Yuki was waiting for To-ya," Yukito said, interrupting Touya before he could start to comment on just _how '_interesting' he thought this Vash person was, most likely on purpose. "I thought you had work today, Vash-san?"

"So did I," the blond replied, slouching loosely back over the chair and nursing a water bottle blankly. "But we weren't doing much today, and my partner said he was 'sick of looking at my stupidly spiky head' and kicked me out until further notice."

Ah, good. He'd been wondering how to breach the subject of work.

"What is it you do, exactly?" Touya asked suspiciously. It was probably some dead-end, unrespectable job, he guessed from the other's appearance (spiky hair, pieced ear, black shirt and dark jeans), which would give him a perfect reason to strictly forbid Yukito from meeting with this person again now that he had actually met him personally.

"Ah, I'm a detective," Vash sighed, before grinning at Touya's stunned silence appreciatively. "I know, I don't really look the part, right? Well, you know what they say, 'bout not judging a book from it's cover and looks being deceiving and stuff. I actually am older than a college student, surprisingly. "

Touya really didn't want to admit it, but he honestly hadn't thought the other man was any older than late teens to very early twenties, but no way was he going to say anything about it now. Sure, he had underestimated the blond, but there was no way he was a detective.

"Vash-san, are you still working on that strange 'homo' case?" Yuki asked sweetly, gracefully ignoring Touya's silent brooding. Both Vash and Touya simultaneously choked on their drinks, though for entirely different reasons.

"'Homo' case?" Touya snapped incredulously, looking thoroughly scandalized. Vash nearly dropped to the table laughing.

"No, Yukito-kun, it's a 'homicide' case, not a 'homo' case," he managed once he had semi mastered breathing again. "Homo cases aren't our department," he added as a joke, but it was obviously lost on both of them so his sighed, shaking his head a bit. "Just… It was a homicide case."

"Oh," Yuki said, slightly pink faced as Touya focused on calming himself down again. "Well, are you still working on that strange 'homicide' case then?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," the blond grimaced, giving him a strained smile. "We're not really making much progress, and I guess we were both taking it pretty bad, so he kicked me out for now. I personally don't think that does much good, 'cause if we don't start figuring stuff out soon, they're gonna take this one away too, and…"

He trailed off, grumbling unhappily under his breath, and Touya raised an eyebrow slightly before he could stop himself.

"Homicide?" he asked with somewhat forced politeness. He was sure that once he heard more about this, it would prove all the more why he didn't want Yukito to be hanging around with this person. "What happened there?"

"Well, we don't really know. That's kind of the problem, isn't it?" Vash grinned teasingly before letting out a soft sigh, dropping his head back over the chair to stare forlornly up at the sky as he twirled his water bottle expertly between his long fingers. "There was this young café owner who lived in the building on top of his café, and had started acting weird about a month ago. A week-and-a-half ago, one of the café's usual customers came by for her regular morning routine, and decided to let herself in when no one answered, 'cause they had been close friends for a while. To make a long story short, when she went up into his room to see if he was okay, the entire room was almost literally painted in blood, which DNA testing proved all belonged to him. There was no sign of a body - or body parts - anywhere to be found, and there was no sign of a struggle either. There was way too much blood for one person to survive loosing it all, so they announced him dead within the first couple of days, but there was no other evidence of any other person entering or exiting the building since closing the night before. It's like… he just vanished in a puff of blood. Needless to say, we're a bit stumped. Third case like that these past two years alone. The pressure's really on, 'cause they keep taking these cases from us. Soon we won't even be able to look at them anymore, if it keeps going this way…"

"Don't you think something like this would be all over the news?" Touya asked skeptically, crossing his arms with a huff to interrupt the blonds' mini-sulk.

"You think they want something like that on the news?" Vash snorted, pushing himself back upright.

"The news loves things like that!" Touya snapped. "I can't even begin to think of all the times I've turned on the television and seen nothing but hours and hours documenting the latest string of murders. The media loves those kinds of stories!"

"Wrong. The news loves murder cases we can solve," Vash responded solemnly. "For whatever reason, the media loves to stuff the public full of stories about the latest psycho, the psychological aspects of killing twelve people, how it could happen to anyone and how we can solve it when no one saw it coming. They love to report stories of how it's possible some lab has created some new super virus that could kill us all in a week so we all start washing our hands more often. But, when there actually is something we can't figure out, when there might actually be something people should worry about, whoever discovered the problem is going to be covered up, because for whatever reason we don't want people worrying about what actually might matter. So," the blond drawled, the hand that wasn't propping up his chin drawing abstract patterns on the table top absently. "I for one would never trust a word I heard on the news unless I put it there myself."

Touya wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. No one ever really disagreed with him, because he was usually always right. He was the one who always did the arguing; come backs were something he wasn't quite equipped to deal with, so all he could really do was gape soundlessly at the foreigner for the next several moments, bristling slightly when the blond gave him a pleasantly expectant and almost somewhat challenging look, seeming to wait for him to come up with a decent rebuttal. Yukito chose that moment to interfere, gracefully changing to subject back to a less conflict-inducing area.

"Vash-san, did you finish that book I recommended?" Yuki asked, smiling sweetly.

"No, not yet," Vash said, grinning back lightly. "I had to order it online eventually, and by the time it got here, this whole mess had popped up and I haven't picked it up since, but I am about half-way through the last part. The first four were really good, but I'm not so sure I like this last one."

"Mm, I agree," Yukito nodded, picking up his own cup of tea and smiling over it peacefully. "But the first four were interesting enough to make reading the fifth one worth it, I think."

"That's true," the blond laughed. "British humor really is something else, huh?"

The remainder of the 'visit' passed this way; the two foreigners talked about books and movies Touya had never heard of while he silently sulked in the deepest possible corner of the chair, sending the blond severely unhappy looks of extreme dislike, looks that Vash gracefully ignored with the air of someone who was quite used to such things and was no longer bothered by them. After what had to have been nearly a full hour of torturous literature chats, the other man's cell phone finally had the grace to break Touya out of his pained silence by ringing loudly with some stupid American jingle Touya didn't recognize.

"Hn?" the blond questioned, shuffling around a bit until he could properly see the screen on his phone. "Ah, I'm being summoned back to work already. I wonder what happened to the whole 'clearing the space of useless idiots' plan…" he mused, grinning at his phone slightly in blatant entertainment before snapping the screen shut suddenly and standing up quickly. "Well, I have to go. It was nice meeting you, Kinomoto."

And so, placing a bill on the table to pay for his tab and flipping his phone open again to punch in a number with a violent rapidness before balancing it to his ear with a teasingly annoyed sound with one hand as he scooped up his discarded blood-red jacket with the other, the strange blond foreigner gave them a final grin and a wave over his shoulder before trotting down the crowded street at a brisk pace. Even when he should have been lost in a sea of business suits and school kids, Touya noticed, you could still see the blond a long time after it should have been possible, the colors were just so… noticeable.

"He's not a very subtle dresser, is he?" Touya grumbled a moment later. Yuki hummed in affirmation beside him.

"Yuki doesn't think Vash-san knows how to be subtle, To-ya," his friend responded. "But that might just be part of who he is. And besides, maybe some people do not need to be subtle."

Touya just shook his head in silent wonder. He couldn't think of anything to say until they were about halfway home, because as badly as he wanted to forbid Yukito from meeting with this person again, he honestly could not think of a good enough reason, and looking like a jealous ass in front of Yuki was not an option.

"… How did you and Vash-san meet, Yuki?" he settled on eventually.

"In the library, actually," Yukito said. "I think he was looking something up. I was just looking for something new to read, but for some reason the entire left wing of the library he was looking through suddenly started collapsing all on top of itself. There were books everywhere! So, Yuki went over to help out, and we just started talking. We liked a lot of the same books."

"And what do you two do when you meet up?"

"Talk."

"Just talk?" Touya insisted. "About what?"

"About books, movies, people, stuff like that," Yukito said, giving him a strangely confused look. "Everything, I guess."

"Why?" Touya asked, refusing to acknowledge the slightly hurt undertone in his voice. I thought you came to talk to me, he didn't say, I thought you would always choose me for everything. Why not me?

Yuki's look of polite bafflement melted away into a much too sweet look of quiet understanding. "Because sometimes even though I have gotten better at Japanese and I don't really remember England, I still like to be able to talk to someone else who speaks English normally," he said, smiling sweetly up at him. "Besides, To-ya doesn't like talking about English books that much…"

Unfortunately, that was true, and Touya really couldn't say anything against that without it being a lie, which was not something he would allow himself to do in front of Yuki. So, he just closed his eyes with a sigh, letting the calming white glow of Yuki's aura wash over him soothingly as they walked. "Can I…" he stumbled over his words, mumbling slightly. "Can I borrow that book you were talking about?"

He didn't open his eyes to look at his friend, but he could feel Yukito's pleasant surprise next to him. "Okay," he heard Yuki coo softly beside him, moments before the boy's smaller hand carefully encased his. That _did_ make Touya open his eyes, looking down at his friend questioningly. Yuki gave him a sheepish smile, starting to pull his hand back guiltily. "I know To-ya can see without really looking," came the tiny response. "But it still makes Yuki nervous so close to the road."

Oh. Touya really couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he just kept his silence, squeezing his friend's hand reassuringly to prevent him from retreating so quickly. He still had nothing to say, and Yuki was too busy trying to pull his scarf up to cover his rather vibrant blush to think of anything himself, so they walked home in relative silence, hand-in-hand.

It wasn't like it really mattered, anyway.

* * *

Sakura in the kitchen when it wasn't her turn to cook meant Bad Things, Touya decided as he came home from work a few days later.

"… What are you doing?" he asked cautiously as he slowly approached the kitchen in his best combat-ready mode. "It's Dad's turn to cook."

"Makin' chocolate," she hummed happily, not even looking up from her sloppy stirring, chocolate mix flying everywhere. Touya winced.

"Please tell me it's because you learned how to do that in cooking today," he said. "And please tell me you plan to clean all this up."

"No! Tomoyo-chan showed me how to this afternoon at her house," she snapped, shaking her spoon at him irritably, causing even more batter to fly through the air. He sent a pointed stare at the puddles of brown throughout the room and she flushed shamefacedly. "And, uh, yeah, I will…"

"…" Touya frowned deeply, not saying anything as Sakura returned to her 'cooking' with a huff. Sakura was not the kind of person to make something in the kitchen without due reason. There was only thing that could possess Sakura into suddenly trying to make chocolates for no good cause… "Oh _shit_!" he whispered vehemently, dashing out of the kitchen and through the house, clearing the front gate at about the same time his father entered the driveway. "Dad!" he shouted, grasping hold of his father's shoulders tightly. "Dad! What's the date today?"

Fujitaka looked rightfully startled, his thin glasses slipping down his nose as his son shook him quickly. "Uh…" he tried. "I believe today is February thirteenth," he managed out finally.

"Damn it!" Touya spat, releasing his father abruptly and sprinting off down the street, presumably in the direction of his friend's house. Fujitaka watched him go with a puzzled look, pushing his glasses back up his nose with a shake of his head as he picked up his discarded briefcase and went inside to see if Sakura-san wanted help finish her chocolates.

* * *

"Yuki!" Touya yelled, slamming the front door to his friend's house open unceremoniously and looking frantically around for his friend. "Yuki, I need to talk to you! Where are you? This is important!"

There was a faintly surprised noise, the sound of something thumping abrasively against something else, and then the sound of the boy trotting quickly to come see what was wrong. Touya clumsily kicked off his shoes, not really caring where they landed, before scrambling up and down the hallway to meet his friend halfway.

"T-To-ya, what's wrong?" Yukito asked frantically, his big brown eyes wide as he was also grabbed around the upper arms and shaken quickly. "Is something bad?"

"Yuki, today is February thirteenth! Do you have any idea what this means?" he snapped, nearly lifting the boy up off the ground in his haste, dragging him into the kitchen and placing him firmly in a chair, huffing in exasperation when Yuki anxiously shook his head no. "It means that… What happened to you?"

Yukito looked utterly frazzled, his face and upper shoulders completely drenched in water, hair ruffled and glasses sitting at an difficult looking angle on his nose. He let out a slightly sheepish laugh, gingerly untangling his glasses from his hair and trying to dry them unsuccessfully on the hem of his shirt.

"Ah, I was out watering plants in the back," the silver-haired boy laughed. "And To-ya really surprised Yuki, so…"

"Oh. I'm sorry," Touya said, quickly getting up and grabbing the fluffiest towel in could find in the kitchen and promptly returning over to the table to drape it over his friend's head, ruffling it hurriedly in an attempt to dry him off. "You should go change; you'll get sick if you stay wet." Yuki hummed merrily, giggling at bit and swatting at the towel playfully.

"Okay," he said cheerfully, not really trying to squirm out from under the towel. "But first I'm hungry. I think there are some sweets on the counter Yuki was saving for when To-ya came over."

"I'm not hungry," Touya said. Then he remembered why he had come over in the first place, whipping the towel off the boy's head and grabbing his arms again to ensure he had his attention. "Listen! This is really, really important! Tomorrow is February fourteenth, Valentines Day! Do you have any idea what that means?"

"No?" Yuki offered sweetly, not looking too concerned now that he was assured there was no dire emergency, rather looking very amused instead. "What is Valentines Day?"

"Valentines Day is the single most horrible holiday ever invented!" Touya said quickly, spinning around away from Yukito and making as if to try to strangle the air. "It's this awful day where all the girls in your school team up at once and transform into horrible, chocolate wielding demons!" Yuki still looked confused, so he decided to elaborate. "They stalk you all day long, following and cornering you in places you would never think could even exist in the deepest reaches of hell. No where is safe! They hunt you down and attack you with sweets, shoving them at you and using gimmicks that no school should ever turn a blind eye to, but it's all allowed on damned Valentines Day! It's appalling!"

Yukito gave him a level, patient look and pulled his glasses off, retrieving the towel from where Touya had dropped it and using it as a drying cloth. "So… It is a… stalking holiday?" he tried, clearly not grasping the concept of the celebration in general.

"Yes!" Touya said, nodding vigorously. "They try to pass it off as a day to hand out chocolate, but it's really just a day for the stalker fangirls to have their way without getting in trouble, mark my words!"

Now Yuki look interested. "Hand out chocolate?" he asked, sliding his glasses back on to look at Touya curiously. "The holiday is one to pass out chocolate?"

"Well, yes, they say it's to pass out chocolate as an 'expression of love' or some crap like that," he ground out. "But it's bad! The girls only use it to attack us! Do you understand?"

Yukito thought about it for a while, before a blissfully pink smile came over his face and he nodded happily. "Yes, Yuki understands," he said, standing up and glancing down at his still-soaked shirt. "I think Yuki needs to go change now."

"…" Touya didn't think Yuki really understood the gravity of the situation, but didn't know how better to explain himself so sighed in defeat. "Do you need any help? With the back yard, I mean! Not changing, of course, but…"

"It's okay," Yukito laughed, finding To-ya's blushing and fidgeting to be most humorous. "I was done anyway. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

"No, I should go…" he sighed, reluctantly wandering out the hallway to the doorway. Yukito walked him to the front door, waving goodbye happily before quickly trotting back inside. There was something else he wanted to do now.

* * *

February fourteenth was easily one of Touya's least favorite days of the year. He woke up on high alert, dressing suspiciously, and, for appearances sake, barely managed to talk himself out of minor panic attack as he walked down the stairs casually, though he did skip breakfast due to a healthy lack of appetite. He had been hoping to avoid talking to anyone until he saw Yuki that morning, but Sakura caught up to him as he was putting on his shoes, approaching him timidly with a little pink bag clutched embarrassedly to her chest.

"Um, Onii-chan…?" she tried, sitting down on the step next to him shyly before holding out the bag bashfully, clearly intending for him to take it without complaint. "Happy Valentines Day."

Touya paused, raising an eyebrow down at the proffered bag of handmade chocolates silently. Sakura obviously knew nothing of his hatred for this day, so in a way, it was kind of cute to see her try so hard to be friendly. "… Is it safe to eat?" he managed at last, looking at her stoically.

Sakura puffed up incredibly, huffing indignantly. "Of course it's safe; I tasted it yesterday!" she snapped. "Geez, you know, you don't have to be such a jerk! All you had to do was take it and say 'thank you,' but no!"

Touya shrugged, taking the bag without another word. "I was just asking. It's not every day you come across Monster Chocolate, after all."

Sakura screeched, clenching her fists angrily. "Well, if you don't want it, you can give it to Yukito-san then!" she snapped, before seeming to remember something and mellowing down diffidently. "Um, actually… do you think you could ask Yukito-san to stop by tonight after school? I have one for him, too…"

He paused again, shrugging slightly before standing up and dragging on his school jacket casually. "Sure, I guess."

Sakura squealed happily, jumping up happily before remembering she had been putting on her skates and quickly sitting back down to finish strapping them closed. Touya didn't wait for her, ignoring her shrieking and walking outside quickly. He waited until he was out of her eyesight to eat the chocolate.

It wasn't that bad, actually.

* * *

School during Valentines Day was just as horrible as he had feared it being. There were red and pink ribbons and paper hearts strewn everywhere, and Yuki was ruining his attempts at stealth by trotting behind him in plain sight, chattering away happily about how odd everyone was acting. Yuki himself was acting slightly odd himself, politely refusing any chocolate from the gaggle of heinously giggling girls (except for once or twice when he was hungry, and even then Touya had been quick to put a stop to _that_, not wanting Yuki to get caught up in White Day obligations) as he patiently followed Touya around the school, watching his dark haired friend avoid their other schoolmates as if his very life depended on it in vastly clear amusement. Valentines Day seemed to have gotten worse since last year, most likely due to the fact that he was now determined to ensure Yukito stayed free of scary fangirls as well, so Touya was exceedingly glad when the painfully long-seeming school day ultimately ended, immediately grabbing Yuki by the wrist and dragging him outside the very second the bell signifying the end of classes rang.

Once Touya deemed they were finally out of 'attack range' of the school he finally allowed them to slow their pace, grumbling unhappily to himself as they walked, Yuki laughing pleasantly by his side. Then, suddenly, Yukito stopped walking.

"Yuki? What's wrong?" Touya asked, stopping a few paces ahead as soon as he realized the boy was no longer at his side. Yuki flushed cutely, fidgeting with something in his school bag timidly.

"Um, To-ya, how was your Valentines Day?" he asked softly.

Touya shrugged. "It was okay. I managed to escape without getting any chocolate," he shrugged. "Well, other than Sakura's, of course, but that doesn't count. You okay?"

The smaller boy nodded quickly, shuffling about a bit. "Chocolate is bad to To-ya, then?"

"No, chocolate's not _bad_, I guess… Why?"

"To-ya said something about Valentines Day being about getting chocolate, so…" Yuki smiled, digging out a small bag and offering it out to Touya with a little blush. "Happy Valentines Day, To-ya."

Touya stared at it blankly for a long moment before messaging his forehead with a small groan. "Yuki, Valentines Day is where _girls_ give chocolate out," he said slowly. "White Day is where guys give gifts."

Yuki blinked. "So…"

Touya sighed, taking the gift with an obligatory air. "Nothing. Just… never mind," he said. "Hell, Valentines Day is over, so what the hell? Oh, by the way, Sakura wanted you to come over today. She said she had something for you."

The boy grinned happily, trotting up to resume his place back at Touya's side with a joyous noise, one pale hand coming up slightly to grab hold of Touya's sleeve near his wrist quietly. Touya blinked down at him once, twitching slightly, but then decided to ignore it with a small sigh and a little shake of his head.

After all, it _was_ Valentines Day.

* * *

Later that month, Touya had decided to do some actual research into the mysterious crescent moon symbol that kept appearing around Yukito, and found himself spending a lot of time at the public library. He looked through topics ranging everywhere from ancient religions, current fantasy manga, and cult practices, but the symbol itself was nowhere to be found. Sure, he found similar looking pictures, but none were satisfactorily close enough to be called the same thing. Eventually, he'd gotten sick of looking through random facts and took a home-drawn sketch of the symbol to a reference librarian. She had known neither what it stood for, where it came from, or how to find out, so in a last ditch effort to preserve her image of usefulness had recommended he visit some sort of 'professional medium' or cult expert, for she was 'quite sure it was something to do with some sort of spiritual or elemental involvement', which was really pretty useless anyway, but she did look up a few local names and address she thought he would be able to get in to see that might be helpful.

He would have actually been very grateful for a list of contacts with a group of mediums, except the list turned out to be complete crap -- the first address took him back to where the witch's house should have been (It took him longer than expected to find because everyone he asked insisted that address did not exist, and when he did get there, not only was the address number missing, but the house and lot seemed to have vanished. Touya did not hang around long enough to investigate; in fact, as soon as he realized where he was he left.), the second address he recognized as the Tokyo government building from his government class so he didn't even try showing up to that one, and the third one took him to a drugstore in the downtown district (what a strange symbol for a drugstore, he mused) but he didn't go inside because he really didn't think anyone inside a pill-store could help him figure out the meaning of a symbol. After three unsuccessful attempts he figured the entire list was some bogus joke of phone book 'mediums' that had deals with the library and ended up crumpling the paper and chucking it angrily under his bed, where it remained in solitary confinement for many years.

Flopping face-first onto the bed and punching the pillow once with a huff, Touya was probably the closest to throwing a fit than he had been in years when he remembered he had said he was going to meet Yuki at the park for lunch in about twenty minuets. Scrambling frantically around his room in search of his jacket before rushing downstairs to lopsidedly tug on his shoes - he could still make it on time if he ran all the way - Touya decided he would go back to figuring out the symbol and it's puzzle some other time.

He would figure it out eventually.

* * *

"To-ya, your birthday is this week, right?" Yuki asked, staring down at his lunch thoughtfully. "What are you going to do on your birthday?"

Touya stared at him blankly for nearly a full minuet before remembering he had told Yuki his birthday a while back. "It's this weekend, yeah," he said, vaguely impressed Yuki had remembered such a small detail from so long ago. "I think Dad is making a special supper or something, but I ask for them not to do a party or anything. You wanna come?" He hadn't asked earlier because he'd honestly forgotten.

Yukito looked overjoyed for a second before mellowing down a bit. "Are you sure? Yuki doesn't want to be a bother…"

Touya sighed, grabbing a nearby bun and shoving it into his friend's mouth without much warning. "Yuki," he said gravely, struggling not to grin as his friend fought to swallow the whole bread in a dignified manner. "If you are not there I promise you I will see it as a personal insult and hunt you down to drag you there myself. Do you understand?"

Yuki flushed cutely, finally managing to consume the roll and sent him a blinding smile. "Good, because Yuki would have been sad if To-ya didn't want Yuki to be there," he said before turning his attention back to his jelly roll with a vengeance.

Touya paused, watching his friend intently for a while as Yuki attacked his lunch before shaking his head silently in amazement. Yukito was - and he meant this in the fondest possible way imaginable - the single strangest being he had ever met thus far in his life, possibly in his entire life. There was still no way he would ever be convinced that Yuki was just a regular person, but at the same time, Yuki was one of the most 'human' people he had ever heard of. Though he was still curious as to where the other boy had come from and why, he was content with waiting to find the answers for now, because Yukito certainly wasn't causing any harm, and he sincerely doubted that Yuki even knew the answers to these questions anyway.

Letting out a soft sigh and pushing a spare bread roll across the table in humble offering, Touya simply shook his head in response to his friend's questioning look, reaching out to tug on the boy's cheek affectionately before changing the subject back to their upcoming history test because he couldn't think of anything important to say.

That week passed quickly, and his birthday evening was a pleasant experience with just his father, sister, and Yuki. He really didn't feel any different now that he was seventeen rather than sixteen, but that really didn't surprise him any. The day after his actual birthday, Yukito had gleefully dragged him out to eat, stating that even though he didn't want to interrupt the 'family tradition', he still wanted to do something special for Touya's birthday. Touya hadn't been too sure what to think of this, because even though he usually hated being dragged on outings where he was the center of attention, he'd had a really good time with Yuki.

He was still pondering this later that night, laying on his back on his bed as he stared blankly up at his ceiling when a timid knock came on his door. His dad was staying at school late to prepare for an upcoming lecture seminar, so he knew it was just him and his sister home, but she should have gone to bed a few hours ago.

"Sakura?" he called, sitting up on his elbows questioningly. "What's wrong?"

There was a long pause, followed by a pitiful whimper of "Onii-chan…" and a good sniffle or two from the general height of where his sister's head would be. "Onii-chan, can I come in?"

Anyone who could resist that voice had to be either heartless, dead, or deaf, he figured, sitting up with a sigh. "Yeah, the door's not locked," he said, doing his very best to keep a stoic face as Sakura struggled briefly to open the door without letting go of her precious stuffed lion-thing, shuffling into the room in what had too have been universally acknowledged as the world's most pitiful walk. He wasn't too worried about anything being deadly wrong; there wasn't anything bad in the house, and he was sure that if something at school or during the day had scared her she would have said something while their father was still home, so it was kind of difficult to keep a sober, blank face when she look so much like a kicked puppy. "What's wrong?" he repeated patiently.

"Onii-chan," she whimpered, rubbing piteously at her watery eyes with a tiny fist. "I had a bad dream…"

"Oh," he said, sitting up the rest of the way on his bed and patting the space next to him for her to sit. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," she protested firmly, crawling up awkwardly to sit next to him. They sat in silence for a while, Sakura staring wide-eyed up at the full moon through his window as Touya studied his floorboards diligently before she finally broke the quiet. "I was in a room," she blurted suddenly, twisting her plush toy uneasily in her nervousness. "But it wasn't my room. I couldn't really see what it looked like; the whole house was too dark. I thought I heard someone coming from outside, so I got scared and hid in the closet. I had the door shut, so I couldn't really see, but they weren't making a lot of noise, but then I heard someone else come in downstairs. They came upstairs into the room very quickly, like they didn't need to be invited. Maybe they lived there, I don't know. They talked for a little bit, but I couldn't hear what they said, and then… it sounded like a fight. I don't know, but it sounded bad. Then, there was… the most _horrible_ noise, and then the room got very cold, and very quiet. I could still hear someone moving around, so I didn't get up, but I couldn't hear the other person anymore. I could hear the one left… dragging something big, dragging it down the stairs and outside, and I was so scared I couldn't get up for a long time. When I finally did come out… there was so much _blood_," she sobbed, rubbing pitifully at her eyes in a vain attempt to hide the latest tear flow. "The curtains had been ripped off the window, and it was a full moon so the room was really bright, but there was so much blood! It was so scary…"

Touya frowned deeply as she gripped his sleeve tightly, burying her face in his nightshirt as she sniffled quietly. Something about her dream bothered him, he decided, the whole thing bothered him, but his sister had come to him for comfort, so he couldn't very well brood on his unhappiness about it right now. So, he decided to think about it later, pulling her into a comforting bear hug and ruffling her hair playfully as she made a small noise of startled protest, squirming against him in minor agitation. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Squirt," he said, ignoring her squeaks of indignant remonstration. "I can't think of many nighttime nasties with tough enough stomachs to go after a real monster."

"Onii-chan!" Sakura chided, pounding half-heartedly on his shoulder. "Don't be so mean!"

"No, it's true!" he reassured her, adapting a look of complete seriousness. "You see, what actually happens is the monsters that we have nightmares of actually have nightmares of us! That's why, even though you know they live in the closet and under the bed and they scare you, they've never actually attacked. They're too scared of us to move!"

Sakura wavered, her nine-year-old brain finding this logic completely understandable and reassuring as she thought over it, her bright green eyes wide as she thought over the possibilities of using this new knowledge to her advantage. "… Really?" she asked finally, turning her hopeful and trusting gaze back to her brother.

"Sure," he shrugged, still managing to keep his face completely stoic. "You especially don't need to worry, considering that you're the scariest monster of them all!"

"Onii-chan, you meanie!" Sakura screamed angrily, pounding on his shoulder once before flopping back down next to him with a huff and crossing her arms with a pout. "Honestly, I have no idea how someone like Yukito-san can stand to be around you for so long; you're such a jerk!"

Touya desperately wanted to have a snappy response, if not for any other reason than to preserve his character, but the question genuinely stumped him. It was true; he and Yuki had very little in common on first inspection. He preferred to think of himself as more of a loner, and he had noticed that Yukito had most likely always been a little clingy, though the recent discovery about his grandparents had only made this trait worse. Touya went out of his way to make sure he appeared the very opposite of cute and fuzzy and friendly for the sake of his self-made reputation, where as Yuki came across as the very embodiment of all these qualities. Touya _hated_ to be teased; he never tolerated anyone teasing or poking fun at him, and he even had a real problem with people simply contradicting or talking back to him. He was usually right about most things, so he didn't see why people who were wrong felt the need to act otherwise, and no one was allowed to mock him and get away unscathed, and yet he could hardly think of a day that Yuki had not jested with him on some level. It seemed that Yukito's favorite phrase was 'sister complex', something the smaller boy had come up with in their literature class and found terribly funny, and since then had made it a point to work it in at least once every two days. And when it wasn't the sister complex joke, it was something else, like how serious or overprotective or 'cute' he was, and yet he did very little (if anything at all) to discourage his friend other than the occasional 'playful' retaliation. Yuki loved to cuddle, and was endlessly trusting and outgoing to everyone he met, and looked at life with an almost childlike enthusiasm and joy, while Touya shied dutifully away from public shows of affection, was slightly frightened when total strangers greeted him with anything less than outright suspicion, and had long since trained himself to look at life with a cold and cynical skepticism. No, he and Yukito didn't have much in common, but at least now he had the guts to admit it.

"I don't know, Sakura," he said, returning to staring up at the ceiling. She didn't give him much of a response; he had taken too long thinking about it and she had nearly fallen asleep. He sighed, trying to go to sleep himself, when something he would not have thought of even a year ago occurred to him: He would ask Yukito in person.

And he did, on the way home after soccer practice, while he was unlocking his bike. "Yuki, why do you still hang out with me so much?"

Yukito looked surprised for a moment, and then looking a little pitifully confused. "Yuki likes to."

"Is that really it?" he snapped, a little miffed at such a simple answer. "And for god's sake, use pronouns!"

His friend stared at him levelly, calmly observing and most likely assessing the reason for his apparent anger. "Yes," he responded softly. "That's all."

"But why?" Touya pressed irritably. "We're nothing alike and we barely have anything in common! By all means, we shouldn't even enjoy hanging out!"

Yukito's confusion quickly melted away into a petulantly soothing grin. "That's not true," he cooed, smiling up at him affectionately. "Besides, we have more in common than you might think."

"Like what?"

Yukito looked startled again for a moment, like it was strange for him not to simply accept this. "Well, does To-ya enjoy spending time with Yuki?"

"Yes." He wasn't blushing, damn it, it was just a fact of life.

"Well, Yuki likes spending time with To-ya," his friend responded with the air of someone who had just solved an age-old mystery. "There's one right there."

"Yuki…" Touya stammered, too stunned to respond for a moment. "It… it doesn't work like that in real life. Not now."

"Why not?"

"It just can't! Life doesn't work like that for real people." He wasn't even sure what this was about anymore, really, but it seemed important that he got his point across.

He could tell Yukito was perplexed by his choice of words, and maybe there was some other emotion mixed in there too, but as usual his friend snapped back to himself with a charming smile. "Maybe it can," he answered simply. "Maybe 'real life' is what doesn't work."

Touya didn't know how to reply. There was so much he felt he needed to say, but nothing was coming. "Yuki, don't ever disappear," he heard himself say as the swirling petals of the school sakura tree caused his vision of the outside world - the real world - to go pink. "Promise me."

"Yuki will never leave To-ya lonely," the boy answered. Taking it all in stride with a gentle smile as he slipped his smaller, white hand into Touya's and led them both outside the school grounds. "Never, for as long as To-ya needs me."

And Touya never tried to pull away.

* * *

Well, I honestly would love to appologize for that, but.. I'm pretty amused by it myself. Trigun (and eventually by extension Trigun Maximum) was my first ever series, and I've loved it very dearly since I was twelve. Vash just never stopped being my all time favorite character, even though now I ONLY go by the manga and hate the anime with a burning passion. (Yuki's been a close second all time favorite for some reason; ever since I first picked up CCS I just loved that boy.) But manga!Trigun Maximum!Vash is made of of infinite times 150 different kinds of awesome. That entire series was. The ending was so much better than the anime. Fangirling aside, I think I should mention that I did most of the plotting for this fic whilest I was reading a great fic from Harmless One; needful under Trigun. The plots are entirely different, but I'm sure the influence from that pops up in more than one (obvious) way. It was a great, great, wonderful fic, so if you like/know Trigun at all and don't mind AU-ness, yaoi, and dark themes I definitely recommend checking it out. It's a long, wonderfully written read, and it's finished now (I don't know what to do with my time now that I don't check it every day. -sigh-) so, you know... All that aside, I'm wondering if I should put up a picture of Vash at my LJ (my homepage in my profile) for those who don't know what he looks like, but I don't know how popular/well known Trigun was, so I think I'm just going to go laugh a myself for trying to combine my two favorite (and completely opposite) manga series in one place. Yay me. Maybe some crossovers just weren't meant to be made. XD


	7. The Girl in the Park

Hallo, Monday! -sleepy wave- Staying up until four in the morning two nights in a row watching movies to prematurely celebrate Knives Day _might_ not have been the best thing to do, but hey, it was fun. XD Though I'm still not entirely sure on how we decided _that _was going to be out way of celebration... But anyway, since it's Monday, July 21, happy Knives Day!

* * *

Yuki was asleep, Touya realized suddenly. He probably had been asleep for a while now, if his aura was any indication, and it had taken Touya this long to notice. Carefully putting the school reference guide he had only half-heartedly been reading to the side as smoothly as possible to avoid jostling the small body curled on top of him, Touya really couldn't completely suppress a sigh of pure contentment. He knew they should be studying - they did have a big exam coming up in a few weeks - but at the moment he was having difficulties bringing himself to care.

Earlier that morning, Yukito had decided that if Touya was going to make them study for a test they didn't need to worry about yet on a Sunday, then they were at least going to do it somewhere nice and had politely demanded that they go to the park. Touya had obstinately objected at first - the park was where his little sister and her fourth grade friends went, and they were in high school, damn it - but Yuki had unsurprisingly won the 'argument' in the end, and they had made a packed lunch (which in itself took a substantial amount of time), gathered their study supplies, and headed out to the Penguin Park. Being a Sunday, the playground area of the park was horribly packed with noisy little snot nosed brats, and Touya had quickly pulled Yuki away when his friend had started to head over to the swings near the crowded slide.

"You dragged us over here to begin with," he complained. "So I get to choose where we sit, okay?"

"Okay," Yuki had beamed up at him. "To-ya probably has some place really nice in mind anyway, right?"

Actually, he didn't, but he did know the woods behind the play area well enough to wander around for a bit, find someplace pleasant enough, then act like that had been his plan all along. It didn't take him very long; they had maybe been walking perhaps seven minuets before stumbling upon a quiet, secluded clearing in the trees away from all that irritating child noise. Yukito had love it - right away he started chattering away about how perfect this place was and how wonderfully To-ya had planned this and so on - so that Touya had already chosen a specific spot for them to sit (dry, in the shade of the trees but still with splotches of sunlight coming through so Yuki wouldn't get cold, and with no abnormal bug, plant, or animal activity) and had unloaded their school workbooks before bodily forcing Yuki to sit in order to shut him up. His friend hadn't responded well to being tackled to the ground and had retaliated with what Touya considered one of the lowest form of attack possible: tickling. This had resulted in the two of them rolling around in the grass like a couple of idiots for a good number of minuets, Yuki laughing like a five-year-old who had just been told their favorite animated hero wanted to appoint them as their personal sidekick while Touya struggled (and probably failed) at suppressing chuckles of his own, until they both fell into a bush and decided that now would be a good time to start actually studying.

That had all been hours ago, and though it really was defeating the purpose of why they had come here in the first place, Touya couldn't bring himself to wake the other boy now. But that also meant that he himself couldn't get up until Yukito did, either, he told himself, and his arms were cramping from holding the book up in the air to read, so he could afford to take a little break now, he supposed. Stupid Yuki, falling asleep on him like this. Gently taking the abandoned text book from the boy's limp hands and placing it aside for now and then lightly brushing some of those silver bangs away from that too-pale face (lightly, carefully because if Yuki got up now then so would he, and he had just started his break), Touya flopped back on the grass and for once allowed himself to simply wallow and drift in his satisfaction. He was almost asleep, barely able to keep his eyes open enough to watch the clouds puff by lazily across the clear blue sky, when something abruptly told his mind to wake up. He didn't move, instead calmly closed his eyes and listened to the soft breeze rustling through the plants and the soft humming of the bugs for several minuets before realizing he could hear something else entirely, causing him to subconsciously tighten his grip possessively around the small being in his arms.

Touya didn't listen very long, sitting up slowly and gently easing the tiny body of his friend to the ground next to him, careful not to wake Yuki up and pausing a moment to make sure he really was still sleeping soundly before getting up completely to further investigate the noise. It wasn't very far from where they had been 'studying;' he barely had to walk maybe fifty feet to visually confirm what his brain had already figured out the sound would come from.

It was a little girl, huddled under one of the more overgrown trees in her stunningly white sundress, her small fists rubbing furiously at her eyes as she cried. Touya paused for a moment to collect his wits - she looked so out of place; her long golden hair and white clothes almost seemed to glow in the shade of the woods - before he cautiously took a step forward and made himself known.

"Hey," he said gently, clearing his throat carefully in an attempt not to frighten her. "Are you okay? Are you lost?"

She didn't jump, but she didn't stop crying either; in fact, all she did to acknowledge him was shake her head no, and, if anything, started crying harder.

Touya frowned harder, thinking that he now remembered exactly why he hated these woods so much and how he should have just let Yukito stay in the brat area as he warily continued walking forward to her. "Do you need something?"

Oddly enough, the first discernable word he could understand between her sobs was something that sounded a hell of a lot like "Potato!" Luckily for him, she decided to continue without further prodding. "I can't find Potato," the girl cried, shaking her head pitifully. "I lost him behind the park and I can't find him now!"

Well, if all she wanted was some stupid potato, then he counted himself lucky. He could just go to the store, buy a potato, and give it to this girl all before Yukito even woke up. Unless… "What does Potato look like?" he asked politely.

"Potato is… about this long," she sobbed, holding her hands about one foot apart. "And he is green, and has a really long neck. I lost him in the woods and I'm really scared without him!"

Ah, so, 'Potato' was a plush toy of some kind. He hoped. Well, this could prove to be difficult, especially if the girl had been here for a while. "Well, I'll help you look for Potato, if you want," he offered.

"Really?" she sniffled, looking up at him for the first time with big, watery blue eyes, eyes that must have reflected the sky beautifully in life. "You'll stay with me until we find Potato?"

That probably wasn't a smart thing to promise - they might never find a plush toy that had been lost in these woods, after all - but he figured it was worth a shot. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Where's the last place you remember having Potato?"

She didn't remember much, and they must have spent at least an hour shuffling through bushes and vines in an unsuccessful hunt for the missing toy before Touya stood up to straighten his aching back with a severely agitated noise. The girl paused in her own searching to send him another watery look. "I'm sorry," she whimpered. "You'll still stay with me until we find Potato, right? You promised, remember?"

He groaned inwardly - he knew promising that had been a bad idea - but sighed and nodded anyway. "I'm sure we'll find your Potato soon," he muttered tiredly. He wondered if Yuki was still asleep; he couldn't see the clearing they had been sitting in anymore, so he had no way of knowing if Yukito hadn't already woken up, realized he was alone, and gone home by now. That didn't seem very much like his friend, though. No, more likely, Yukito had woken up, realized he was completely alone and was by now undoubtedly both completely terrified and very hungry (Touya really doubted Yuki would think about opening the lunch they had packed in case it seemed rude, so most likely the boy had not eaten). God forbid he had wandered off and gotten himself lost - he'd never tried testing Yuki's skill at finding his way out of a foreign forest, but all of the personality traits pointed to him being horrible at directions. On top of that, he had long known these woods were practically a spiders web for all forms of spirits - his current predicament was proof enough of that - and maybe that was why his friend had not woken up yet. Maybe Yuki just wouldn't wake up at all.

No, that couldn't be it; no story would just end like that, not without explanations.

But even so, imagining the best possible scenario and Yuki had made it out of the woods okay, what if in his current state of shock (cold, lost, alone, hungry, petrified) Yukito forgot how to get home? He could ask for directions, but what if he forgot his Japanese and _couldn't_ ask for directions? He could always call that damned foreigner friend of his, but Yuki didn't have a cell phone, and he didn't carry any money for a payphone (Did Yuki even know what a payphone was?). He couldn't ask for help, because he didn't speak Japanese, couldn't find his way home because he'd forgotten, and was either going to wander the streets until some lowlife kidnapped, raped, and killed him or Yuki was still in the woods somewhere.

Touya hadn't realized he had stopped searching through the bushes, standing up straight and frowning in what he thought was the general direction that he had left Yukito in, his unpleasant expression deepening by the second as his brain continued to think of more and more _creative_ situations involving the abandonment of his friend. After several minuets of complete inactivity, the little girl he was helping finally noticed his pause in movement and stopped as well, staring at him worriedly for a moment with growing unease.

"… Is someone over there?" she asked quietly, causing Touya to jump at the sudden break in silence. "Is something wrong?"

"No," he sighed, snapping back to himself and relaxing again slowly. "I mean, yeah, I left someone back in the clearing but no, nothing's wrong."

"Oh. A friend of yours?"

"Yeah, you could say that."

"A close friend?"

"… Yeah, I suppose so," he mumbled after a moment's though.

"It must be nice," the girl sighed wistfully, looking devastatingly sad. "Having friends, I mean. It must be nice to always have someone to play with." Touya didn't know what to say in return to that, so he awkwardly went back to distractedly shuffling through the underbrush in search of her toy, vaguely wishing he could go check on Yukito. The little girl smiled strangely up at him. "How many friends do you have?" she asked.

"Just one," he answered politely.

"The one that you were here with?"

"Yes." He wasn't going to say anything on how badly he wished Yuki was still right here next to him now.

There was a moment of silence before the girl spoke again. "Were you two on a date?" she questioned, her big blue eyes sparkling innocently.

"What? No! We were here to do school work! Why would you ask that?" Touya snapped defensively.

"Oh…" the girl sighed, turning her attention back on her own searching dejectedly. "It's just… when you talk about that person you just seemed so happy, so I thought…"

"Happy?" Touya frowned, the same frown that had yet to leave his face for the past hour. "This looks happy to you?" he asked, pointing to his sour expression. "I'd hate to know what you think sad is."

"Gao…" the girl whimpered, looking embarrassed. "I just thought… I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he huffed, and then was hit by an idea. "Hey, if you'd like, I could show him to you. He probably won't be able to see you, but you could still see him." He wasn't really sure how simply watching Yukito would bring this girl any comfort, but any excuse to check up on Yuki would make Touya happy. He bit back a grin when she nodded, trotting gleefully back in the direction he was most certain he had left his classmate.

"Where are you going?" the girl asked softly after a moment. Touya paused.

"To take you to see my friend. I left him in a clearing this way," he said, pointing absently.

"But… You came from that way," the blonde said, pointing in the exact opposite direction of where he was headed.

Now Touya was annoyed. He didn't mind wasting his rare free time to help some lost girl, he really didn't, but his sense of direction was legendary and infallible. He'd never gotten lost; it was a life skill he prided himself on. "Look, I know where I'm going," he snapped. "I've never been lost in these woods before, so I think I can find my way back to a simple clearing."

The girl quieted guiltily, falling into step behind him obediently, but he didn't miss the subtle glances she kept sending the direction she had been pointing to. Fifteen minuets of aimless walking proved that maybe Touya didn't know his way around the woods as well as he thought he did when it turned out not only did he not find his way back to the clearing but he also didn't even begin to recognize any of his surroundings, so he wordlessly turned around on his heels and began trotting in the opposite direction, sending the girl a dark look when she glanced shyly up at him. Several more minuets of brisk trotting and he was still no closer to finding his way back to the clearing, and Touya broke out into a frantic run, the girl struggling to keep up with him.

This was bad. Skidding quickly to a full stop, Touya suddenly realized he was panicking. Not for himself, no, he could find his way out of the woods eventually, but he had to find his way back to Yuki. Yuki hated being alone, and Yuki looked like he would be horrible with directions. He could look for a tall tree to climb to see roughly where he was, but that could take a while, due to the fact that all of the trees were kept with their lower branches shaved so small children couldn't climb up and injure themselves, and even though it looked like no one had come to this area in a while all of the lower branches looked small and flimsy.

"Yuki?!" he shouted at last, giving up on his pretense of not drawing attention to himself. "Yuki, where are you?!"

There was a long, tense moment before he finally heard a faint "To-ya?" in the distance and bolted after it, repeatedly calling the boy's name as he went. It seemed like an eternity of running before his friend finally came into view (perpendicular from where both Touya and the girl had been pointing) and he barely managed to avoid bowling the boy over.

"To-ya?" Yuki asked, looking terribly confused and slightly worried as Touya hunched over to catch his breath, panting heavily. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he gasped out at last, several minuets later. "It's fine. You? You're… speaking Japanese, that's good! No one's tried talking to you, right? Where have you been? I'm teaching you to use a payphone next, damn it, we're not going home until you know how, okay?"

Yukito barely seemed phased by the verbal barrage, smiling blissfully at him and crouching down so that they were eyelevel. "That's good. Yuki's fine. Of course Yuki's speaking Japanese. It's the language To-ya taught Yuki to use in Japan. Only To-ya has talked to Yuki all morning. Yuki did not leave the place To-ya left him until To-ya called. To-ya sounded scared, so Yuki came quickly. What's a payphone?" he finished, tilting his head to the side slightly quizzically, big golden eyes shining up at To-ya adoringly.

Touya sighed, feeling relief flood his body exhaustingly before straightening up slightly to face the boy better. "Don't talk in the third person, for god's sake. Use 'I' when talking about yourself," he scolded, tugging on his friend's face sternly. "I'll show you what a payphone is on the way home. You really just sat there in that clearing this whole time? How long were you asleep?"

"Yuki doesn't have a watch," the boy reminded him, holding up his thin wrist as proof, before realizing his grammatical error and correcting himself obediently. "_I_ don't have a watch, so I don't know how long it was, but when I woke up and To-ya wasn't there, I was a little scared. But then…" He trailed off, lightly touching where his shirt covered his chest lightly before seeming to catch himself and dropping his hand back down with a pleasantly absent smile. "I wasn't scared anymore. I knew To-ya would never really leave, and I knew To-ya would always come back, and I wasn't really alone, so it was okay."

"So you really did just sit there for hours?" Now Touya was feeling really bad, but at least Yukito had been safe the whole time, but he started to worry when his friend shook his head no.

"I fell back to sleep after a few minuets," Yuki beamed up at him happily. "I just woke up again when To-ya called. Yuki always comes when To-ya calls. What is To-ya doing?"

That was a good point. Glancing around, Touya noticed that the girl he had spent most of his afternoon with was no where to be seen, but since he hadn't yet fulfilled his promise, he figured she was probably still somewhere near by. That reminded him… "Yuki, I need your help with something," he said.

It didn't take long to explain to Yuki what it was he was supposed to be looking for, and thankfully his friend didn't care too much about asking questions, happily setting about on a search for what he was convinced was a 'mutant living potato', despite Touya's best efforts to convince him otherwise. Now that Yukito was safely within his sights, the search didn't seem so daunting or frustrating, though it was considerably less peaceful and quiet now that the boy had rediscovered his need to fill any and all silence with meaningless but reassuring chatter. They couldn't have been searching for very long, a few minuets at most, before Yuki stood up suddenly with a happy noise of accomplishment, holding up a tattered, beaten looking lump of green fabric triumphantly.

"To-ya!" Yukito exclaimed, carefully starting to pick spare bits of foliage from the rotting plush. "Is this 'Potato'?"

Touya frowned, walking closer to Yukito to get a better look at the pathetically pitiful excuse of what appeared to have previously been a green, long-necked dinosaur toy. "Yeah," he said, looking around for the still-missing blonde girl. "I think it might be."

"Ah, there's a nametag, look," Yuki said, holding the plushie against his body to pull the collar on the toy around so he could read it better, revealing a large rip in the in the seam of the neck where the rotting stuffing inside had been overrun with an infestation of all manner of revolting creepy crawlies.

"Yuki, don't hold that so close, it's disgusting," Touya cringed, gingerly plucking the toy from his confused friend and holding it as far away from his body with as minimal contact to his hands as possible. "Here, we'll put it over here in the light so we can read it better…"

He personally could hardly care less about what the collar of some rotting plush toy said, but apparently Yukito did, so he was willing to play along for a while, so he carefully and gingerly placed the toy on a flat rock in the sunlit clearing they had originally been planning on studying in. Touya really didn't want Yukito touching the putrid plaything (Yuki looked so small and pale he must have been the type of person to get sick very easily, and the plush was just crawling with germs and therefore disease) so he carefully unhooked the collar, grimacing as the stuffed head drooped sickly on the decomposing neck, before holding it up to the light so they could read it better.

"Look, it is Potato," Yuki said, leaning against Touya's shoulder to better read the writings on the tag. "It's got an address here, too…"

But neither of them recognized the address, and eventually Touya realized it was one of the smaller island beach provinces.

In the end there was not a lot they would do; the address was too far away for them to even think about returning the plushie in person, and Touya was very sure that sending such a decomposing hive of unhealthy organisms was against several shipping laws, so he was resigned to wrapping the toy in his poor, suffering jacket to charily carry it home because Yuki refused to leave it at the park and Touya refused to let Yuki touch it by hand. Once home (after making an obligatory stop at a payphone and a slightly rushed lesson), Touya made sure to wrap it in three separate plastic bags before securely hiding the lumpy package stealthily in the back of his closet in hopes of never having to deal with it again. However, that was not to be, and despite the fact that he sometimes saw the confused looking blonde girl wandering about outside his house, which was easy enough to ignore on its own, but Yukito seemed happily persistent to find any and all progress on what he cheerily dubbed the 'Great Potato Mystery.' After a week or so of this, Touya finally got the idea to post an add of sorts on the internet and see what happened.

By the next day he had already gotten a response.

It was from an anonymous person, and he couldn't figure out how to track down the address, but the email assured him that this person had been looking for the plush toy 'Potato' for a while, wanting to return it to the family it belonged to, and if Touya would kindly like to meet this person's workers to retrieve it they would be more than willing to not only answer any questions he might have but also offer a small reward of sorts. Touya thought it all sounded more than a little fishy, but they had asked to meet in a very open and crowded shopping district anyway and once Yuki found out there was simply no backing out.

So, the day after he had sent off a response he found himself gingerly picking his way through the afternoon crowd in the Tomoeda shopping center to the appointed 'meeting place,' dragging Yukito behind him by the wrist to make sure the boy didn't get swept away in the crowd with one hand and holding the sack with the now quadruple-bagged toy inside in the other, not really happy about where he was but not enough to try to change it. Touya had made sure they arrived much earlier than the appointed time, so he had time to 'scope out' the surroundings while they were still alone (he had heard the phrase on a cop show his father had been watching once, and if that fluff-head of a blond Yuki had befriended could be a detective and did that sort of thing for a living then it really couldn't be that hard and he sure as hell could do it too), and he thought he had been doing a pretty good job, which was why he was mildly irritated to see that Yukito found his new routine so thoroughly amusing that the boy was off ordering snacks nearly as soon as his wrist had been released. Grudgingly, he could find nothing out of the ordinary even with his best detective skills, and had to reluctantly sit down and join his friend in snacking as they waited for the mysterious internet contact's workers.

They didn't have to wait long; shortly before the appointed meeting time two boys in their mid-teens noisily approached the restaurant. Well, the shorter one was seemingly intent on being noisy, anyway. He was small - maybe even smaller than Yukito - but he was very loud, with unevenly cut light chocolate brown hair and almost feline-shaped golden eyes, and no apparent care for the opinions of the people around him, voicing his obvious displeasure with his partner as loudly as his apparently well-developed lungs would allow him to. The other boy was tall, even by Touya's less-than-easily-impressed standards, with short dark hair, thick limbs, and intense forest green eyes that gazed impassively down at the ramblings of his smaller coworker with an almost scary level of indifference.

For a moment Touya blindly hoped that these two were not the people they were supposed to be meeting with (because he needed another pair of crazy people to deal with like a five-legged squirrel needed Speed, he thought sarcastically), but of course he would be having no such luck as the taller one seemed to recognize something about them and then he was pointing them out to his smaller, decidedly more talkative partner. Touya suddenly felt it necessary to do the same, seeing that Yukito had yet to take notice of the approaching pair in favor of his increasingly appealing ice cream bowl.

"Oh, they look nice," Yuki commented absently once he managed to tear his attention away from his snack enough to look.

Touya thought this was the entirely wrong response, and struggled to find a way to put his confusion into words, but during his internal struggled Yuki decided that while watching Touya fumble for words was amusing, eating was even better and chose to turn his interest back to where he felt it was needed. While slightly royally irritated at his friend's apparent lack of interest in what he saw as a serious 'investigation,' Touya felt that his own focus was better needed giving the newcomers his best suspicious glare.

Only the smaller one seemed to be affected even in the slightest. Touya wondered if he needed to work on his glare more.

"Are you Kinomoto?" the darker one asked stoically as the smaller boy openly gaped at him.

"Yeah," he responded cautiously, at about the same time Yukito noticed there were new people standing next to their table and beamed sweetly up at them, effectively ruining whatever callous impression Touya had been trying to establish.

"Good," the taller boy said, smoothly sliding into the chair directly across from Touya, while the smaller, louder one sent him a nervous look before sitting down in the chair closest to Yukito, shrinking away from what Touya felt was one of his most deserved warning glares to date. "Our boss talked to you over the internet about picking up some plush toy you found?"

"Yes, of course," Yukito smiled, ignoring Touya's most pitiful look of pleading intimidation and pulling the sacked toy up onto the table and pushing it towards the shorter boy. "To-ya was very smart to add about it on the internet, right?"

"Err, right," the brown-haired boy grinned awkwardly, taking the bag with a restless fidget. "Honestly, I have no idea how Kakei-san found it though, or why he was even looking for it in the first place, but now that he does have it I can promise that it will get back to it's proper family. Right?" he added, sending a desperate look up at his silent, taller partner before looking a little annoyed when he didn't respond and turned his attention back to Yukito with a nervous laugh. "I mean, Kakei-san may be pretty scary - but only when you get him mad, of course, or… only when he feels like it, I guess -- but I've been on dozens of jobs like this for him and he always does what he says he's going to! At least, I think he does. Of course, I've never actually seen him do it, but that doesn't mean he doesn't! Actually… I have no idea what Kakei-san does with the things we get from these jobs, but…"

"Shut up, you're embarrassing yourself," the darker haired one said grumpily, causing the smaller one to shriek indignantly, flailing about and screaming all sorts of things Touya didn't want to have to explain to Yukito later, causing him to slap his hands over his friend's ears in hope of saving himself the trouble later.

"Kakei is the name of your boss?" he cut in, ignoring how amused the boy seemed to be by the whole situation and gradually releasing his hold on Yuki's head as the cussing skidded to an abrupt halt. "Where exactly do you work?"

"Ah, the… Green Drugstore?" the small cat-boy said, blinking in a way that Touya defined as stupid. Didn't that name sound familiar somehow? "Kakei-san didn't tell you that? Shoot, maybe I wasn't supposed to then! Oh no, what if I get in trouble?"

"To-ya won't tell anyone," Yuki said, nodding sincerely before breaking out into a huge grin. "My name is Tsukishiro Yukito," he said before Touya could stop him. Giving out information to the enemy! Bad! "What are your names?"

"Uh, my name is Kudou Kazahaya," the brown haired boy said. "And this brute here is Himura Rikuou," he said, jabbing a thumb irritably towards his darker haired partner, who sent him back a less-than-pleasant look in response to the introductions.

"It's very nice to meet you both," Yuki said politely, smiling sweetly when Kudou flushed and stumbled to return the greeting.

Touya was getting very tired of this very fast. He didn't like these people and was sick of being near the rotting toy of some kid he didn't even know. They had what they wanted, and all he wanted was to take Yukito home and watch a movie or something, so he didn't see why they couldn't just leave now. "Well, I'm sure you'll make certain 'Kakei-san' gets this 'Potato' back to it's proper family," he said, standing up and placing his hands on the table irritably. "It was very nice to meet you, but Yuki and I have a previous engagement to be attending to soon, so I'm afraid you'll have to excuse us now," he finished, grabbing his friend's wrist to pull him up as well. Yukito just stared at him.

"Yuki's not engaged," he said incredulously. "Is To-ya asking?"

"No, Yuki, what? No, having a previous engagement means you've made plans," Touya ground out, exerting most of his willpower in the simple act of not hitting his head against the table until he died. "It means we're busy."

"Oh," his friend said, thinking this over quite thoroughly. "But we're not."

"Damn it," Touya spat, plopping back down into his seat dejectedly, not sure if he was cussing at Yuki for exposing his masterful excuse (probably not, because Yuki never deserved to be cursed at), himself for not thinking of a better excuse (or at least for not teaching Yuki what that saying meant earlier), or just cussing in general (which was most likely considering the fact that he was in a horrible mood now). Beside him, Yukito continued to look graciously confused.

Touya was not the only one getting tired of present company. Himura Rikuou was also starting to get pretty pissed listening to his coworker Kazahaya try to go over some 'commonly confusing sayings' with the light haired stranger (it was just as nearly amusing as it was depressing to hear two people be so completely stupid about a language, he thought, and would have to use it against his roommate later, the idiot was just asking for it), but the difference between him and Touya was that he was better with excuses.

"Kazahaya," he said gravely after he felt he had heard enough to harass his coworker non-stop for at least a week. "We have to get going soon. Kakei-san said something before we left about a new shipment coming or something."

"Ah, are you serious?" Kazahaya whined childishly, looking thoroughly disappointed. He _hated_ unpacking new shipments with a flamingly righteous vengeance. They always put him on the _worst_ items.

"Of course." He wasn't. But Rikuou thought he could wait until they got back to the shop to tell the other boy that. "Kazahaya, give them that paper Kakei told you to and let's go."

"Paper? Oh, right, paper," Kudou said, digging around in his pockets for a moment before producing an envelope triumphantly and handing it directly to Yukito, who, fearing an attack of jealousy from To-ya's over-protective side, passed it along to Touya instead. "Kakei-san said to give this to you. I haven't looked inside, but it shouldn't be anything, you know… _bad_," Kazahaya said, laughing nervously before standing up to mimic his partner.

"Oh, it was very nice to meet you both," Yuki said, standing up as well and holding out his hand amiably to Kazahaya just the way To-ya had taught him to.

Kudou Kazahaya of the Green Drugstore blinked once in surprise before smiling warmly and reaching out and shaking hands with Tsukishiro Yukito, both of them grinning hugely in an open sign of friendship.

"I hope we meet again well in the future," Yuki said, smiling as they pulled away. Kazahaya face fell strangely blank, the boy wavering slightly in place as he pulled away, giving Yuki an odd look as he did so.

"Right," he said slowly after a long moment's pause, turning around to trot mindlessly back to his retreating coworker but remembering to stop to wave in farewell after a few feet absently. "Goodbye."

Somehow it came out sounding more final than it should have.

"What was that about?" Rikuou asked him once they were on the streets again several minuets later. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Don't be stupid, he'd expected Kazahaya to snap. You know I can't see ghosts, he'd wanted.

Instead, his roommate had sent him an oddly haunted, unfocused look and just shook his head.

"I thought I saw something," the boy murmured a moment later. "But I don't know what."

"What did it look like?" Rikuou asked, frowning. He had known no job from Kakei would be all sparkles and glitter. Maybe he should start making it a mandatory requirement that Kazahaya wear gloves on all of Kakei's side jobs.

Kazahaya just shook his head again mutely. "I don't know. I thought…" he trailed off, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "I thought I heard someone talking, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Oh, I don't know."

Rikuou didn't like this, not one bit, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. Besides, Kakei would never put them in any actual danger. He hoped. "Well, don't worry about it," he said eventually. "I don't think that brain of yours can pull off multi-tasking yet and it's your turn to cook tonight."

"You jerk!" Kazahaya finally shrieked. "Can't you ever think of anything but yourself?" Ah, that was better.

Whatever Kazahaya had seen, it would sort itself out eventually. Besides, it wasn't like it was really their problem to begin with.

It had been nearly five minuets after the strange pair with stranger jobs had left, and Yuki was still waving, Touya realized suddenly. He himself have been busy between staring alternately at the envelope in his hands and the spot where the two had vanished from, but now he suddenly realized how stupid they must look and sat down with a huff.

"Stop that," he chided irritably, fiddling with the envelope grumpily.

"Okay," Yukito said cheerily, sitting back down in the seat next to Touya and returning to his food. "I liked them," he cooed by way of explanation.

"They were weird," Touya grumbled.

Yuki just laughed at him in response to that. "What's in the envelope, To-ya?"

"What do people usually put in envelopes?" he drawled sarcastically, ripping the top unceremoniously from the envelope in question as he did.

"A letter?" Yuki offered sweetly.

"That's right!" Where most people would have looked insulted at being the target of his rather obvious bad mood, Yukito just looked happy to help. Touya shook his head with a sigh and just decided to read the letter. "It says, 'Dear Kinomoto-kun, thank you very much for your help. We all wish you the best of luck in the future. Enclosed is a ticket as payment. It may come in handy for you later. Best wishes, Kakei.' Ticket? Does he mean this thing here?" Touya asked, holding up a small piece of paper that had fallen out of the letter when it was unfolded.

"Let's see," Yuki hummed, politely taking the paper from Touya and inspecting it thoroughly. "'One person's free pass through the Anything Store.' I wonder what that means."

"I don't know. I've never heard of an 'Anything Store'."

"Well, To-ya should hold on to it anyway," Yukito said, dutifully passing it back to him. "Who knows? Maybe you will need it in the future."

Touya frowned, but took the letter and the 'ticket' and put them both in his pocket before deciding to tactfully change the subject back to something he was more familiar with.

"Good job Yuki, that sentence was very near grammatical perfection," he mumbled, returning his attention back to his own neglected drink. "Maybe I should start giving you a cookie every time you use pronouns and names correctly in a sentence."

Yuki looked absolutely thrilled at that idea.

"Really? Oh To-ya, that would be wonderful!" he practically gushed. "But, To-ya, then I might never, never be quiet and you would run out of cookies!"

"Ah, hadn't thought of that," he grimaced, before something dawned on him. "Hey, you're talking completely normal! I _knew_ you could. Why do you talk the other way so much?"

"Well, To-ya calls Yuki 'Yuki', and Yuki thought it was really special, so Yuki was going to use it as well because it meant a lot," his friend answered truthfully. "Does To-ya not like it?"

"It's a little weird," he responded carefully. "And if you talk like that around strangers, they might think you're stupid, but… If it means that much to you…"

Yuki smiled over at him sweetly. "It's okay To-ya. I'll stop," he said, grinning. "Thank you for worrying about me."

"Don't be stupid," a strangely hot-faced Touya responded huffily, standing up again clumsily. "That's all I ever do," he finished softly.

Yuki was hugging him, he realized dimly. Yuki was hugging him adoringly around the waist in a public place and he still couldn't bring himself to care.

"Thank you," Yuki said softly. "I don't think I would know what to do if To-ya ever wasn't there for me always."

Touya sighed, patting the boy awkwardly on the head. Grammar still had a bit of a ways to go, apparently. "It's okay," he said finally. "I won't leave, so you don't have to find out, okay?"

And he never would.

"Okay," Yuki said simply, pulling back and giving him a smile that was filled with some emotion Touya didn't know how to deal with yet.

So he didn't.

"Come on, let's go to a movie or something," he said, grabbing his friend's hand and leading him out of the courtyard. Yuki seemed overjoyed at the thought and followed without complaint.

Whatever was up with those 'drugstore' workers would sort itself out eventually. It wasn't like it was exactly their problem anyway.

* * *

Touya did his very best from that moment on not to worry about the strange drugstore workers or the unexplainable 'ticket'; he couldn't figure it out or come up with an even semi-reasonable explanation, so both the letter and the paper that came with it had ended up shoved in the very furthest back corners of his dresser drawers by nightfall. Of course, it was only after the two who had picked up the strange, rotting toy had vanished into perpetual nonexistence did Yukito realize that they had completely forgotten to ask anything at all about where or who the toy had come from or who it was going to now. Touya stubbornly defended that _he_ had not forgotten, rather he just didn't care enough to bring himself to waste the air and time it would have taken to ask, so he hadn't. Yukito had turned to him with a level, patient Look until he had been forced to turn away with a little huff, finally muttering under his breath that _maybe_ he had forgotten… just a little. Yuki seemed to appreciate this pained honestly and rewarded him with a cheery smile, a few jokingly patronizing words of praise, and a painfully large cookie. Touya didn't want the cookie, of course, so he had ended up giving it back to his friend come lunchtime anyway, but that still didn't stop him from being insulted, or wondering where such a large atrocity of sugar and dough came from in the first place (or how, for that matter, Yuki managed to carry it to school with him either. How in the world did he pack those monstrous lunches?).

Yuki wanted to try stopping by the afore mentioned drugstore, but the address rarely showed up anywhere and took him nearly a week to find. Over the next three weeks or so he tried many times to visit (all accompanied by Touya, naturally, who thought that Yukito wandering off anywhere unsupervised was a bad idea, let alone to visit some strange people he hardly knew.) but he seemed to have the worst timing, because no matter what time or day they showed up no one was ever in the store other than some tall, dark haired guy in sunglasses sleeping behind the register who wouldn't wake up no matter what they tried. Once Yuki's stupid foreign friend even tagged alone for the fun of it, but the result was no different than before, except that now the store was actually locked. Touya had instantly blamed the blond, and had stubbornly demanded that he do something useful for once besides taking up space (he was only joining them that weekday because his partner had once again kicked him out for 'thinking space'. Touya was beginning to wonder, once again, if the blond had made everything up about his life in the first place and really just didn't have a job.) and had challenged him to use the resources he would have it he really was a cop and do a little research into this store and it's alleged people. Vash had given him a rather strange look, spent the better part of the next five minuets in a contemplative silence, and then gave him a strangely placid smile and left without another word.

The next day the blond had been waiting for him by the front gates of his school.

Touya hadn't been happy to see him (he really didn't like the blond that much at all, though he was beginning to suspect most of his distaste was simply habit based) but Vash help up his hand abruptly to stop Touya from talking.

"Before you ask, I did check, even though it probably wasn't a good idea," the blond grinned strangely. "But I couldn't get through; didn't have high enough clearance. My partner wouldn't help me, but his clearance isn't that much higher than mine. It was completely locked down; I doubt that even together we could have gotten through. That's not normal."

Touya gave him a level look, trying not to develop a tick under his left eye. "Why the hell would there be a clearance lock on drugstore information?" he ground out. Vash started laughing at him.

"I don't know," he said, tilting his head to the side and standing at an angle that had to be uncomfortable on his hips, crossing his arms loosely over his chest. "You might have stumbled into something quite… special. I would be careful, if I were you. Don't go snooping into things you can't handle."

"…" Touya frowned at the blond, who was once again giving him that stupidly expectant, slightly challenging grin, and Touya was once again getting that sinking, nauseous feeling he had learned to associate with something bad. "… You didn't really check at all, did you?"

"Of course I did," Vash answered flippantly, grinning brilliantly in a way that showed nearly all of his teeth. "Where is Tsukishiro-kun?"

"He's helping with the archery club today," Touya said stiffly.

Vash nodded. "Good. Keep an eye on him." He turned to go, waving absently farewell over his shoulder. "Well, see ya."

Touya didn't say anything in return, partly because he still mostly did not want to keep seeing the other and partly because he was too busy feeling sick to his stomach. Something bad was going to happen, he thought, maybe something soon, and he still didn't know what.

Without saying a word, he turned around and walked back to the yard where Yuki said the archery club was meeting, even though he had been planning on going home that day. Yukito looked mildly surprised to see him once practice was over, but bounded over to greet him enthusiastically regardless. They had walked home together chatting aimlessly about Touya's newest part-time job, and Touya wasn't sure why he never brought himself to mention what the cop had said.

Whether Yuki had talked to Vash later about it, read Touya's mind somehow, or just got bored, Touya never really found out, but Yukito hadn't tried to visit the Green Drugstore since then.

* * *

So... I know Potato is the name of that weird dog creature, but I did not recall if they had ever given Misuzu-chan's dinorsaur thing a name, and it seemed weird for such a lonely girl to love something so much without even giving it a name. I mean, she named Sora the crow nearly as soon as she picked him up, so I assumed... Plus, Potato is just a bloody awesome name. -nods sagely-

/Edit!: Kazahaya and Rikuou are from CLAMP's Legal Drug! Or Lawful/Gouhou Drug, depeding on where you look it up, but in American bookstores you'll see it as Legal Drug. They showed up about halfwayf through the first book of xxx/HOLiC, too, when Watanuki went to the drugstore to get Eki-kyabe for Yuuko. They were the people working in the drugstore? Watanuki was rightfully confused by them. / You know, Legal Drug? The one that was coming out right before it was put on hiatus? They said it would be coming out again soon hopefully? Um, I put pictures of them up at my LJ, so you can see I wasn't making it up. Check my homepage in my profile if you want to see them. I'm surprised; I was expecting people not to know Trigun Maximum, but Legal Drug is a more recent CLAMP fandom, and yet more people recognise at least anime!Vash than Kazahaya. That's, uh... amusing. XD


	8. The Doll

This is **NOT** discontinued! I appologize to everyone who has been waiting for an update, but things in real life for me have been a bit... hectic We found ourselves with two weeks to plan and pack for a nearly cross-continental way, and then we **drove** from California to Tennessee. I was in the car for six whole days because my mother was the only one who could drive. Yikes. The school system has a weird schedual here, so I had three weeks of makeup work to do in one week as well as keep up on current assignments, and on top of that, Comcast HATES us and we have not gotten our internet up until today. (I have been going through withdrawals. It's not been pleasant.) I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but... I have been trying to write. I started chapter nine, realized I needed to re-write the entire outline for arc one, scrapped it, and am starting again. As a reward, instead of more random filler, you actually get plot and a new, non-crossover character next. Yay.

So, um, the one thing is, now that school has started, I think I'm going to move update days to Sunday, otherwise I would be posting Monday evening, which is practically Tuesday sometimes. (I'm aware that didn't make a lot of sense, but it does if you squint at it just right.) Again, I appologize for the stupidly long delay, and I seriously hope this NEVER happens again (I hate being caught so far behind; it makes me feel bad), but hopefully chapter nine will be up this next coming Sunday.

Oh, and I claim the power of the AU title to explain why stuff here didn't happen exactly like it did in the CCS manga. There are no Clow Cards here, so it has to be a bit different.

* * *

Touya was not happy.

Even just last year, that would not have been such an unusual thing, but currently in his life he was usually pretty content on Mondays. On Monday the archery club did not meet, so Yukito would stay for soccer practice; on Mondays he had chemistry, his favorite class; and on Mondays he didn't have any particularly bad part-time jobs after school. But, on this one Monday, he woke up in a remarkably ghastly mood.

Sakura had not slept well the night before, and he had _felt_ as well as heard her restlessly tossing and muttering throughout the night. Once, towards the more insultingly early hours of the morning, she had even flung herself completely clear of her bed, but had remained unconscious, so he had grumpily drug himself up to return her to her proper resting place, packing a solid wall of pillows around the edge of her bed as a final measure. Naturally, he had finally fallen into a deep sleep less than a full hour before his alarm was set to go off, but it wasn't just the lack of sleep that put him in such a bad mood that morning. He had just woken up feeling supremely _unhappy_ that Monday.

Yukito, on the other hand, appeared to have woken up in a supremely _happy_ that Monday, even by his normally cheery standards, and upon sensing his dearest friend's bubbling cloud of ill-natured gloom, Yuki quickly took it upon himself to do every single thing in his power to make To-ya happier. Considering the epitome of Yukito's joy came from a well-timed snack while in the company of friends, Touya soon found himself nearly drowning in a veritable sea of food and good intentions. Though Touya's Bad Moods usually managed to last for a minimum of three days under normal circumstances, seeing Yuki gleefully falling nearly head-over-heels to cheer him up did substantially lift his spirits, and he was only slightly grumpier than normal by lunch.

But it was at lunch that he suddenly had a gut feeling that Sakura, in her rush to get to school on time after oversleeping even later than usual, had forgotten her lunch at home. When he mentioned this, Yuki was horrified at the very _idea_ that someone should possibly even _think_ to go without a lunch for even a single day and quickly agreed that they should instantly go get it for her. Besides, it would give To-ya a good reason to keep his 'sister complex' happy (damn, but Touya had not missed that joke, he thought bitterly).

The trip to and from his house was largely uneventful, until Yukito remembered the school was holding a special on lunch rolls and ran off to get some to add to 'Sakura-chan's' lunch. Touya, being well versed and healthily afraid of his friend's shopping habits, vouched to go on ahead and just go straight to his sister's school alone for the time being.

The main factor in a great deal of his current and future unhappiness was revealed as he rounded the corner and the fence separating the high school from the elementary school came into sight, and, luckily, his sister as well. What he saw with his sister, however, is what caused his blood to boil.

It was a boy; a short, bratty-looking brown haired, brown eyed boy wearing the grade school uniform and looking to be around Sakura's grade. Sakura looked rather alarmed to see the boy, sending him a sleepily wide-eyed look of unhappiness as he sent her a rather nasty look and then very suddenly snapped something rudely at her and charged forward, seeming to want to grab the girl's wrist.

That, Touya would not stand for. Dropping the lunch he had been carrying for his sister, he vaulted over the fence to grab the brat by the scruff of his uniform and yanked him bodily away from Sakura before he had much time to think about it.

Sakura squeaked in surprise, Tomoyo took the opportunity to make her debut on the scene and rushed over to her beloved Sakura-chan to check on her worriedly, and the brown-haired brat boy looked blatantly shocked for a moment at suddenly not connecting to the ground before looking righteously indignant.

"Don't you _ever _touch my sister, you brat," Touya ground out, seething and very nearly seeing red.

The boy huffed angrily, before lashing out with a well-aimed kick for the head that Touya blocked more out of reflex than actual training, allowing the boy to flip agilely out of his hand, landing a few feet away and striking an offensive stance almost instantly.

Touya had, admittedly, not expected the twerp to be a fighter, and was even more confused by the fact that he did not recognize the style of the stance, but all-in-all was thoroughly unimpressed and retaliated with the best defensive stance he himself could remember from when he took martial arts as a kid. Sakura was whimpering her worry quietly while Tomoyo tried to sooth her gently, he and the brat were glaring hatefully at each other, and surely it was only a matter of time before one of them broke the stalemate and moved first, and sure enough, the boy was tensing the muscles in his right leg, so Touya was getting ready to counter when-

"Hey!"

Touya twitched, his shoulders dropping in exasperation, as everyone present suddenly looked very confused to see a madly waving figure running quickly towards the fence from the high school side, brattish boy included.

"Hey, To-ya, look!" Yuki exclaimed excitedly, trotting over and hopping over the fence eagerly while balancing a rather large and dull-looking paper bag. "To-ya, I got pork buns! Here!" he said, digging one out and offering it to his friend for nearly twenty seconds before realizing the potentially unpleasant situation he had stumbled into. All three of the grade school students were giving him a blatantly baffled look, and To-ya looked like he would very much like to beat the stuffing out of the brown-haired boy. "Oh," Yuki said wisely, blinking at them blankly before turning back to the one thing he was sure could solve any conflict: food. "Well, I also got some melon and bean buns, but I did not get any of the manjuu buns, I was very careful about that. Would you like some?" he asked, beginning to pass the foods around. "I'm very glad that the kiosk did not run out, actually. I should have enough for everyone here…"

Sakura and Tomoyo accepted their buns in a stunned silence, Touya casually took his own and popped the wrapping open and taking a quick bite with a small sigh, too used to how his silver-haired classmate thought to consider turning it down, but the new boy couldn't seem to bring himself to do much more than gape uncomprehendingly at the pale-skinned high school student in open bafflement, stumbling back stupidly when Yukito offered him a bun. Touya could feel the muscles under his left eye twitching violently, and was about to put a stop to his friend offering _anything_ to that brat when the boy suddenly let out a pitifully confused sounding squeak, turning painfully red in the face before making a fumbling attempt at escape, tripping after a few feet and face-planting in a nearby patch of dirt, scrambling to his feet awkwardly and dashing off with an embarrassed squeal.

There was a long, puzzled silence before Sakura finally voiced the thought that Touya was sure all of them were thinking.

"What is _wrong_ with him?"

* * *

The boy's name, as Touya soon found out, was Li Syaoran, a transfer student to Sakura's class from Hong Kong. Apparently he had just arrived today, but had been rather cross with Sakura all day, despite her best attempts at pure friendliness, which did absolutely nothing for Touya's once again _extremely_ foul mood. While he would have loved nothing more than to hover protectively near her for the remainder of the school day, just to make sure she made it home without further troubles, Yukito had dutifully reminded him that they were all only on lunch break and actually had to hurry if they did not wish to be late for their next class. This had briefly caused a bit of panic, but Touya had quickly sorted them out and had marched Sakura and Tomoyo back to their classroom (with a direct order to the teacher to keep a close eye on that _brat_ to make sure he didn't cause any trouble, he'd said to a blinkingly surprised looking school teacher, pointing directly at the still very flustered looking Li kid) before patiently ushering Yukito back to their own school just in time for their next class. He spent the rest of the school day in an exceptional sulk, even by his standards, that was not to be broken even by his friend's best efforts, so eventually even Yuki was resigned to quietly following him around all day, sending him longing looks at random intervals. This really did nothing to improve his mood, because now on top of it all he felt horribly guilty about the way he was treating his best friend (which still really wasn't Yukito's fault, either), and at the end of the school day he had instinctively escorted Yukito home, the whole time fretting agitatedly about how Sakura's cheerleading practice was going, barely acknowledging Yuki's pitifully hopeful goodbye before rushing home to start dinner.

If Sakura wasn't home _exactly _when she was supposed to be, then he was going straight back to that school to seriously kick some fourth grade brat ass. Grudgingly beginning to aggressively chop the carrots with the largest meat hacking knife he could find, Touya was largely seeing red and he was pretty sure he had still been growling by the time Sakura trudged through the front door, thankfully nearly ten minutes early.

"Onii-chan, I'm home," she called tiredly, chucking her skates off in an exhausted manner.

"Did anything happen after I left?" Touya scowled, looming over her irritably, knife in hand in preparation of possible action, just in case he maybe needed to extract some horrible vengeance. Sakura looked slightly scared.

"H-hoo_eeee…_" she tried, stumbling back slightly with her hands up before shaking her head no violently. "N-no, nothing happened!" she said hurriedly. He raised an eyebrow at her silently in his skepticism, but she just flushed red under his scrutiny, once more insisting nothing more had happened before rushing up the stairs to her room to change out of her uniform.

Touya turned his head to the door, giving it his very best evil glare, hissing violently and brandishing the knife in his royal anger, only to notice his father standing in the doorway, giving him a very startled look. They blinked at each other in unison, a long, uncomfortable pause stretching between them nervously before Touya quickly hid the butcher's knife behind his back with an anxious twitch.

"… It's my turn to make supper," he said by way of explanation.

Fujitaka blinked once, twice, before laughing uneasily as he hesitantly bent down to take off his shoes. Touya took the opportunity to quickly retreat back to the kitchen, not wanting to discuss his possibly psychopathic appearing outbursts with his father. Unfortunately, Fujitaka seemed to think otherwise and followed him into the kitchen anyway.

"Can I help with this?" he asked kindly, pointing to the noodles. "You seem a little, ah, 'busy' chopping the vegetables, so it'd be quicker if you had a little help."

"Don't need help," Touya grumbled under his breath, hoping his father would get the hint and leave. Fujitaka waited patiently for a better answer, however, so he finally rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. "Fine, knock yourself out."

Fujitaka set himself about the task with a soft noise of acknowledgement, and for a moment there was blessed silence as he thought to himself how to begin. He and his son didn't talk very often; Touya had largely withdrawn into himself after his mother had died, but had never really been one for talking anyway. "How was your day?" Fujitaka asked suddenly, crushing Touya's dearly cherished silence and causing him to thunk the knife loudly into the cutting board.

"Fine," he hissed, forcefully yanking the blade out of the wood and then punctuating each word with a particularly violent chop. "My day was just _peachy_."

"I see…" his father commented softly, and they both lapsed into another period of silence before the college professor turned to his son patiently. "Did you and Tsukishiro-kun get into a fight of some sorts?" he asked gravely.

Touya actually nearly dropped his knife, turning to gape at his dad openly. "No. What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Well, you just seemed to be in a rather bad mood," Fujitaka said with a shrug. He didn't know; Touya never talked to him about anything like this. He might as well have been fishing in the dark for the reason. "That, and I just noticed that Tsukishiro-kun did not stop by to watch the Angelic Layer regional finals with Sakura-san, when last I had talked to him he had seemed very excited about it."

Touya felt the nagging, coiling feeling that had been twitching in his chest since towards the end of the school day drop with a painful lurch into his stomach, changing into more of a sick, writhing mass of guilt at his father's words. "_Shit_."

During one of their many study sessions, the Daidouji child had come over to announce that her mother's toy company, Piffle Princess, was hosting a new tournament for one of their best selling toy lines, and that she would very much simply adore it if her precious Sakura-chan would like to maybe have an Angel of her own so she could participate as well. Sakura had politely refused - it just wasn't Sakura's style to impose her will to govern the movements of others, even if it was only a doll - and as soon as Tomoyo stopped being bitterly disappointed over the lost opportunity to film Sakura in another one of those outrageous costumes, Yukito had been quick to begin asking her all sorts of questions about the game. He was thoroughly fascinated by this game of walking and 'living' dolls. Tomoyo had kindly told him all about the popular game and had even offered them all tickets to the regional finals in Kyoto, which they unfortunately had to decline - Fujitaka had an important lecture to give and Sakura had cheerleading practice until nearly the beginning time of the tournament, meaning that would have missed the train - so Sakura and Yukito had decided to make a mini-party out of watching it on TV, Sakura because she wanted to see Tomoyo giving out the prize to the winner and Yukito because he was still blatantly enthralled by the idea. Touya had been very grateful he had a part-time job to go to about half-way through the tournament because, God bless them, he was _not_ about to sit through a little girl doll-tournament, no matter how dearly he cared for his sister and his best friend, but it looked like that wasn't going to work out.

"Shit," he said again, massaging his forehead with his free hand, sending a brief, desperate look to his father before turning back to resume chopping vegetables more resolutely. "Shoot, Dad, I… I completely forgot. Man, Yuki… Yuki must be completely devastated! Aw, hell… That's horrible."

Fujitaka hummed slightly, clicking his tongue softly. "So, you two did get into a fight then?" he tried again. Truth be told, knowing his son, he had frankly been surprised their friendship had lasted this long… Oh well; maybe this had been a step in the right direction for the future. "You know, you don't need to stay angry at each other, just because of one fight."

"Dad, look, I told you, Yuki and I did _not_ get into a fight," Touya hissed, not turning his attention away from his work. "And I know; I'm not six. It's just… There was this… _new_… _kid_… today," he ground out, gritting his teeth tightly. "And, I just… got busy, and forgot that was today."

His dad sighed, shaking his head slightly with a small smile. "Of course. I can tell you aren't in the mood for a huge parental speech right now, so I'll keep it short: Don't let this new person distract you from who really matters. Remember how much Tsukishiro-kun looks up to you, okay?"

Touya didn't answer, pausing in his furious chopping to deeply consider his father's words in silence, before finally making a soft noise of acknowledgment in the back of his throat as he slowly resumed his knife work. He knew Fujitaka was right (except for maybe the part about Yuki looking up to him; he wasn't quite sure what to think about _that_), and that he shouldn't let the new transfer twerp to his sister's class bother him so much, because he already had more than enough to worry about, but… _Damn_ if that kid didn't piss him off! Still, he did feel bad about today…

Touya quickly finished the vegetables and added them carefully to their corresponding dishes before cleaning up as rapidly as he possibly could, barely pausing to give a soft 'thank you' to his father respectively before rushing to set the food on the table. No matter what he wanted to do right now, he did have a responsibility to take care of; it was his posted turn for dinner tonight, after all.

Dinner was a slightly ironic reversal of rolls; rather than Sakura inhaling her breakfast despite her brother's teasing, Touya was the one shoveling down his food as quickly as possible while Sakura sat in a confused silence as Fujitaka watched in quietly amused understanding. Gulping down the last of his dinner with slightly more dignity than what his sister managed on a daily basis, Touya scrambled quickly to the kitchen to gracelessly shove his dishes in the sink with a loud clatter.

"It's your turn to clean up tonight, Squirt," he called over his shoulder as he rushed down the hall, thumping to a stop to tug on his shoes.

"Mou, I know!" Sakura scowled as she curiously watcher her older sibling run about like an idiot. "It's on the board. Where are you going in such a rush?"

"Work," he called back, barely pausing in the doorway with a smirk. "It's on the board."

He could hear Sakura's frustrated noise even from outside and set off towards Yukito's house with a self-satisfied grin of accomplishment.

Yuki's house was quiet, as usual, by the time he arrived a few minutes later, but at least it wasn't cold anymore. Touya didn't even bother to knock, silently hoping Yuki wouldn't mind as he quietly let himself in, suddenly realizing he had no plan as he glanced up and down the hallway, hoping he would be able to think of something before he found where Yuki was.

As it was, Yukito was sitting in his favorite spot, as to be expected, sitting seemingly frozen at the heated table in the living room with a long-since-cold cup of tea suspended halfway in the air, his glazed eyes staring absently at the wall opposite where Touya was standing. Touya paused, not yet revealing himself out of curiosity to see how his friend acted when no one was watching, but when over five minutes had passed the boy had not moved a single muscle, to the point that not even the mug of tea had wavered even an inch, and Touya was starting to get a little worried. Was Yuki even breathing?

"… Yuki?" he questioned softly, taking a cautious step forward.

There was a horrible beat as nothing moved, and then Yukito blinked in surprise at the sound of his name, lowering the tea several inches as he turned around quickly, his entire being lighting up brilliantly at the sight of the dark haired boy. "To-ya!" he cooed happily, putting the cup down on the table and rushing to his feet to greet his friend enthusiastically. "To-ya! What is To-ya doing here?"

Touya frowned thoughtfully, reaching out to firmly to grasp the boy's shoulders in calculation, searching Yuki face thoroughly. His friend seemed fine now, laughing happily when Touya pinched his cheeks and pulled for good measure, so Touya nodded, ruffling the boy's hair in approval. "I was just stopping by to see what you were doing," he said, attacking his friend's head more ruthlessly when Yukito only seemed amused by his earlier motions. "I'm sorry I forgot about that thing today. Do you want to see if we can still catch the last part on TV?"

"Ah, To-ya," Yuki hummed, batting at Touya's hands happily. "I just made some tea, would you like some?"

Touya knew Yuki's definition of tea. 'Tea' for Yuki usually meant tea with some obscene amount of sugar, cookies of some form or another, sandwiches and a type of cake on a light day alone. His stomach was still upset from rushing through dinner though. He had no idea how Sakura could do that every morning, really…

"That's okay, I just ate," he said, finally releasing his friend from the greeting-headlock, rolling his eyes as Yuki instantly trotted back over to his discarded tea cup, picking it up happily.

"Are you sure? It's peach," Yuki said, giving him a brilliant smile before sipping at his own cup, making a puzzled noise a moment later. "Huh? It's cold already? I could have sworn I had just finished making it, though… That's weird."

Touya frowned, watching the boy shrug slightly and then pick up the pot and trot off to the kitchen, presumably to reheat the drink in question. Yuki was never one to waste food, after all. "Yuki, are you feeling okay?" he asked, trailing after his friend.

"Yes, I feel fine," Yuki said happily, gently placing the items he was holding on the kitchen counter before turning around to send Touya a slightly confused look. "Why do you ask?"

"No real reason. Are you sure you're okay? You don't feel lightheaded at all? Sleepy? Spacey? Cold?" he pressed.

"Yes, no, no, no, and no," the boy laughed. "I feel completely fine, honest. I'm a little confused, because I was sure I had just finished making that tea, but that's okay, because I can just warm it up again. Do you keep asking because you saw something bad here?"

"No, I was just wondering. Good pronoun usage, by the way."

"Thank you! I've been practicing. Do I get a treat now?"

Touya made a show of patting up and down his pockets before holding up his empty hands in mock-defeat. "I don't have anything on me, sorry," he sighed.

"That's okay; I'll reward myself," Yuki laughed, reaching into his eternally-filled cookie jar and popping one of the sweets into his mouth with a sigh. "I'm really, really hungry. Do you really not want anything?"

"No, I really only need three meals a day," Touya said, crossing his arms loosely. "You never answered me earlier: Do you still want to try to catch that doll thing on TV?"

Yuki paused in his kitchen-raid to give Touya a slightly sheepish grin. "Sakura-chan never said what channel it was on. Besides, To-ya looks like the very idea is hurting him."

Touya groaned slightly, rubbing at his forehead absently. Well, they'd made some progress, at least for a while. "Look, we'll channel surf until we find it. It can't possibly be that hard to track down a game tournament when we get all those stupid game shows every day," he grumbled.

Yukito paused, clearly very tempted on several fundamental levels, but somehow held himself in check enough to send Touya a very worried glance in a last-ditch effort of hesitance. "… Is To-ya sure? Yuki does not want to if To-ya will be unhappy…" he said softly.

Which meant he did want to. Very badly, if Touya's Yuki-dometer was right - and it always was - so he sighed, giving his friend a pained, forced, and hopefully believable smile. "I want to. Would _you_ mind watching it with me? I promise to keep my horribly sarcastic nature under close wraps and tight lip to the very best of my abilities," he said solemnly, placing one hand over his heart and the other in the air in a customary oath taking position, dropping them both back to his sides with a grin when Yukito giggled pinkly, nodding vigorously to show his appreciation of the idea. "Good. Now where's your TV?"

Yukito's grandparents had, apparently, not found much time for television, because the TV set had been hidden in a box in the 'attic,' Yuki suddenly remembered, and lead them up a narrow flight of wooden stairs at the unused end of the main hallway, sliding the door at the top open to reveal a small, cluttered room filled to the brim with boxes and with heavily shuttered windows that refused to let in more than a sliver of sunlight and no overhead light bulbs, so they had to keep the door open to avoid being trapped in darkness. Yuki shuffled in uncomfortably, clinging tightly to Touya's sleeve in a way he automatically assumed was to avoid bumping into anything (Yuki had always looked to Touya like he had horrible night vision; no one with that kind of face should be able to see well in the dark, especially not with glasses with such a powerful prescription like Yuki had) and Touya let out a vaguely intimidated whistle.

"What is all this stuff?" he asked, eyeing the ceiling-high stacks of boxes, paper, and books warily.

"I don't know," Yukito answered timidly. "I think maybe it's things Grandmother and Grandfather collected during their travels?"

"You mean you don't know what this stuff is?" Touya asked incredulously. Yuki shook his head no mutely. Touya groaned. "So we have to go searching through all this from scratch… Are you absolutely sure the TV is in here?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Damn," Touya sighed. "Well, you start on that side, I'll start on the other side and we'll both work our way towards the middle, okay?"

Yukito nodded wordlessly, reluctantly letting go of his sleeve to timidly wander off to his designated searching area, looking dwarfed and tiny next to the massive stacks of cardboard. Touya shook his head slightly, muttering softly to himself before carefully walking over to his own self-appointed corner to begin box-searching. He had spent maybe ten minutes shallowly looking through boxes containing books in languages he'd never seen before, encrypted hand written note papers, curiously wrapped packages he didn't open out of respect, and even smaller, well-sealed boxes before Yuki suddenly made an odd choking noise from across the room, jumping back from the box he had opened as if it had growled at him and landing on his back end firmly, pale hands pressed tightly against his own torso - stomach and chest respectively - as he turned suddenly watery and unsteady gaze to Touya.

"T-To-ya," he whimpered softly, his previously open-palmed touch suddenly fisting in his own shirt as Touya dashed frantically across the room to kneel worriedly at the boy's side, gripping his shoulders tightly. "To-ya, I don't feel good, To-ya. I feel really, really bad."

"What's wrong?" he asked hurriedly, running his hands briskly up and down the tiny body lightly to check for grievous injury, just in case, before pressing his forehead to his friend's to feel for warmth. "You don't have a fever. Did something bite you?" he asked, grabbing Yuki's hands and bringing them close to his face, inspecting them as thoroughly as he could in the dim light for punctures or swelling.

Yukito shook his head numbly, looking too nauseous to be embarrassed over their close proximity, taking his hands back gingerly to press firmly against his mid-torso again. "I just feel bad," he said. "Sick. Really sick."

"Sick to your stomach? Do you think you're going to throw up?" Touya tried again. Yuki just shrugged miserably, and he sighed. "It must be this musty air in here; I bet you'd feel better if we could get that window open. Or maybe it was something you ate. You do eat a lot of weird stuff. Anyway, let's get you downstairs. Here, put your arms around my neck…"

This time Yuki did blush, flushing cutely pink as he did as he was instructed and twined his thin arms around the neck of his friend and burying his face in Touya's shoulder as the taller boy carefully scooped him up to head downstairs. Touya himself was finding that his own face felt a little hotter than normal as he cautiously felt his way down the staircase, wanting to avoid jostling his friend as much as possible in the event that motion made him feel worse, though he was slightly worried over how little Yukito weighed. For someone who ate like a teenage pregnant with triplets, Yuki was really very skinny, he thought as he gently deposited his blushing cargo on the living room couch, glancing around the room briefly then turning his focus back to his companion.

"Are you okay? Are you still gonna be sick?" he asked. After all, he had no idea where Yuki would keep a bucket, so he might want to start looking now. Maybe a large bowl from the kitchen would work, if it was an emergency.

"No," Yukito murmured softly with a little shake of his head, seemingly intent on not letting his gaze wander from where his hands were fisting in the hem of his shirt.

He did look like he was feeling better, Touya noted with an arched eyebrow; what little color normally existed in Yuki's too-pale skin was already reluctantly making it's way back onto his face under the slowly easing blush, and he no longer had the aura of one who felt violently ill. He nodded, satisfied for the moment and stepped back a bit.

"Good. Wait right here," Touya said, making to walk out of the room, only to pause when he noticed a large, fluffy looking blanket draped over a nearby cushion, picking it up and retreating to wrap it as tightly and securely around his friend as possible, as much with the aim of immobilizing the boy as he meant it as a playful jest. Touya nodded his approval of his work as he watched Yukito squirm happily in his amusement. "Stay," Touya emphasized needlessly, pointing intently to ensure Yuki got the message not to move before he turned and once again made his way out of the room.

Yukito blinked, trying to listen to Touya's progress through his house, but his glasses were slipping down his nose and that was really distracting him, but his arms were otherwise trapped by his fluffy prison, so he was unable to do much other than make several kinds of stupid faces until Touya came back anyway since he was forbidden from squirming. Luckily he didn't have to wait long, as Touya was back within five minutes, awkwardly balancing the simple TV set in his arms, plopping it down on the floor across the room as soon as he made it in.

"It was in the box right next to the door, of course," Touya grumbled, staring at the apparently deceptively heavy television with great dislike before glancing over at Yukito. "… What's wrong with your face?"

"My glasses," Yuki said, scrunching his nose cutely. "They are tickling me."

"Oh." He'd let Yuki up in a little bit, Touya decided while he turned his focus back to the mass of wires before him. "I hope your cable works," he realized suddenly. That would just suck if it didn't.

"It should, I think," Yukito said, flopping around enough to shove his face into the cushion he was on top of to stop the tickling feeling. "To-ya, you really do not have to do all this…"

"I got it," Touya insisted stubbornly, glancing irritably between all the chords he suddenly found himself presented with. It was a good thing he never needed to see the instructions, he thought to himself as he hesitantly began connecting wires to plugs.

It took him several tries and a little over half-an-hour, but he eventually did manage to get the TV running, cable and all, and Touya stepped back to admire his work with a great sense of accomplishment as he quickly flipped through the channels in search of his goal. Yuki had long since dozed off, lulled by the warmth and pressure from his still tightly-wound blanket prison and the comforting feeling of having Touya so close by, but woke up again at the sound of unknown people coming from the television, struggling with his cocoon to get into a sitting position.

"To-ya," he yawned, looking not quite awake for a moment before suddenly seeming to realize what he was looking at. "Oh! You got it running!"

"Yes. Yes I did," Touya grinned, utterly failing at keeping the smugness out of his voice as he finally settled on the proper channel, just in time to hear the announcer say, "And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this years' amazing Angelic Layer regional finals tournament! Now, the daughter of the president of our prestigious Piffle Princess company and well known Angelic Layer fan, Daidouji Tomoyo, will present the winning team of today's tournament with a pass to the nationals! Yes indeed, Angel Hikaru and her dues Misaki certainly are going to achieve great things, if today was any indication."

There was a long pause of silence, and then Touya dropped his head forward with a groan, all sense of greatness gone.

"Damn," he muttered angrily, plopping down onto the couch next to Yukito unhappily. "So close."

"It's okay, To-ya, you tried really hard," Yuki said, now squirming against the blankets in earnest. "At least we got to see Tomoyo-chan on television; that's pretty neat."

Touya didn't really think so, but he was also slightly scared of Tomoyo, so he just sighed, reaching over to help free his friend from the cocoon. "I'm sorry Yuki," he said honestly. "I'll… make it up to you somehow." He was not sure how yet, but somehow he would. Eventually. He hoped.

"That's okay," Yukito laughed, stretching now that he was free of his fluffy confinement and then smiled adoringly up at Touya. "I'm just glad To-ya came over to try so hard. It was really kind."

Touya crossed his arms with a huff, looking away pointedly and muttering softly under his breath. Yuki giggled at him until something seemed to occur to him.

"Hey, To-ya," Yukito said, suddenly looking very concerned. "Didn't you say you had work today?"

"… I quit," Touya lied, glaring violently at the flood boards. When he next looked up, Yukito was giving him a very pointed Look, so he sighed. "Well, I was planning on quitting, anyway."

He hadn't been, not really, but he hadn't exactly like that job either, so ultimately it was okay in the end. Yuki shook his head fondly, settling back against him casually. Touya sighed, dropping his own head back to rest on the back of the couch, staring drowsily up at the ceiling as Yukito toyed affably with the cuff at the end of his sleeve. It had been a hell of a day, he thought tiredly. A hell of a day indeed.

"Yuki," he murmured softly moments before he fell asleep. "Don't go into that attic again by yourself. I'll help you clean it out sometime later, okay?"

Yukito hummed his acknowledgement softly, looking very relieved indeed at the idea of not having to go back into that musty little room as he snuggled closer to Touya with a happy little breath. Whatever it was that had caused him to feel ill earlier, he felt find now. He always felt good whenever To-ya was nearby. It was probably just indigestion anyhow, like To-ya had said. And he didn't care much to find out what was in that room now, anyway.

They were both sound asleep by the time Fujitaka called to ask if Touya was coming home for the night.

* * *

Sakura, as it turned out, _also_ blamed Touya for Yukito missing the tournament. She had cried and whined to him about it as soon as he had gotten home from soccer practice the next day, all of her troubles with the new boy seeming to pale in comparison to the horror of her older brother being the reason her make-shift date had fallen through. Touya had countered by demanding to know the state of things with that '_brat_', since he had been unable to check on the condition of the grade school that day.

"Li-kun is… no longer bothering me now," she had said slowly in response. "He doesn't talk to me that much anymore. It's like he's almost ignoring me."

She didn't mention that Li was still watching her like a hawk, ostensibly intent on observing her every action with a suspicious scowl because her Onii-chan seemed satisfied with the first part of her answer as it was.

"Good. That takes care of that," Touya said with a nod as he turned his attention back to unpacking his chemistry homework. "And Yuki was very upset about missing that thing, too, so stop howling in my ear because it wasn't because he doesn't like you."

"Mou, I know that, Onii-chan!" Sakura huffed irritably, crossing her arms with a pout.

"So go away. You have what you wanted and I already apologized to Yuki," Touya said flatly. "I need to get started on this now, Kaijuu."

"Onii-chan, Sakura no kaijuu ja nai!" she puffed making a sour face at him that he had to struggle not to laugh at. "And I want you to apologize to Yukito-san _again_, and tell him to meet me at the sakura tree near the fence tomorrow at lunch, too."

"Do I look like your messenger boy?" Touya said dryly, barely looking up from his papers. "Tell him yourself."

Sakura blushed, fidgeting with her hands cutely. "… I don't want to," she mumbled finally, and then snapped up to give him a triumphant glare of victorious logic. "And besides, you're the one who messed up in the first place, you should be the one to fix it, so there!"

"No," he said simply. Sakura deflated.

"Please, Onii-chan?" she tried again, giving him her best puppy dog eyes. Touya had long since learned the best way to defeat this particular attack was to avoid it, so he didn't even look up. Sakura was getting desperate. "Please? I'll… I'll take your turn for dishes tonight! I know it's your turn today, so I'll do them for you! Come on, all you have to do is ask Yukito-san to be at the fence at lunch! You guys are usually at the tree anyway, please?"

He paused, eyeing her thoughtfully as he briefly considered how much further he should push her before giving in with a little nod. "Fine," he said, stoically turning his gaze back to his work. "I'll tell him."

Sakura squealed, doing a little joy dance in her glee and then spun quickly to stampede happily up the stairs, shouting a hurried 'thank you!' over her shoulder as she went. Touya shook his head in fond exasperation with a sigh. He would have told Yuki anyway, but now he even got out of doing the dishes. Cool.

The next day Yukito had gladly agreed to meet Sakura, and had happily wandered over to the fence as soon as he had the chance, Touya tagging along dutifully.

"You know you don't have to come; I'll be alright talking to Sakura-chan by myself," Yuki said with a sweet smile as they approached the fence dividing the campuses. He knew how little free time To-ya had, after all.

"I don't mind," Touya responded sullenly. There was no way he was letting Yuki wander about with that deranged brat on the loose. I was bad enough that Sakura was there all day, but at least she had the teachers and the Daidouji child to look out for her. Besides, there wasn't a whole lot he felt like doing in his spare time without Yuki around anymore. He really had nothing better to do.

Yuki hummed softly beside him, glancing up and down the fence to check for other people curiously. "Sakura-chan's not here yet," he observed. "Do you know why she wanted to see me?"

"No, but I do know that I got out of doing dishes for playing her messenger boy," Touya said, leaning against the fence and crossing his arms loosely.

"To-ya, that was mean," Yuki scolded playfully. Touya threw up his hands with a huff.

"Hey, she offered!" he said in mock defense, pointedly ignoring the all too knowing Look Yuki continued to send him. "And I also know that it's a good thing that brat backed off, because, foreign transfer student or not, if he messes with Sakura I'll kick his ass, don't care what grade he's in," he finished with a growl.

"Ah, the sister complex strikes again," Yukito laughed softly.

"I'm serious, Yuki. If he goes near her, I'll kill him. That would teach him to mind his business."

"Is that how you deal with every guy that comes near Sakura-chan?"

"Damn straight," Touya huffed. "Every single one off them."

"Then how come you let me hang out with Sakura-chan?" Yuki asked.

"What, you want me to beat you up too?" Touya asked jokingly.

"No, I was just asking," Yuki said, staring up into his face curiously.

Touya deflated slightly. "What, seriously?"

"Yes, very." Yukito knew Sakura-chan liked him, very much, and not exactly in an entirely familial sort of way as he'd hoped. He cared very much for Sakura-chan, too, but mostly as To-ya's younger sister, really. He didn't know how many crushes Sakura-chan had previously had in her life (though he seriously doubted it could be very many) and didn't know if she was the type of person to outgrow a crush or when she would move on. He knew To-ya liked him too (maybe not in the entirely same way as Sakura-chan, he thought with a slightly stupid grin and a little laugh), but he wondered how long it would be before the sister complex got in the way of that. Yuki wasn't a complete idiot; he knew Sakura-chan had (and probably always would) come first for To-ya.

"Because…" Touya started and then paused, thinking hard about why his throat suddenly felt tight, reaching out to grasp his friend's shoulders firmly. "It's because I… I mean you… You're-"

He was cut off as his arm promptly burst into flame. Well, more accurately, a small yellow piece of paper suddenly ignited itself on his sleeve, but the result was still generally the same. He jumped back a few feet to insure it didn't burn Yuki, swatting at the sheet furiously until he knocked it to the ground and stomped on it repeatedly.

"What the hell was that?" he shrieked as he finished grinding out the last of the flames, searching around for the source of the flaming disturbance frantically.

Li Syaoran was perched crossly on the fence a few feet away from them, sending looks of pure, burning hatred at Touya, many more of the small yellow flame-papers with strange markings written on them clenched tightly in his fists, arms crossed huffily against his chest. Touya made a sound very similar to a soft roar while Yukito just looked a pleasant combination of startled and confused.

"You're dead, brat," Touya veritably hissed, narrowing his eyes threateningly.

Li's glare narrowed as well, and he unfolded his arms, holding on fist of notes up in preparation to throw, static lightning nearly visible crackling in the air between them where their heated glares met, both waiting tensely for the other to make the next move.

"Onii-chan! Yukito-san!" a familiar voice shouted as Sakura quickly came into sight, running down the length of the fence towards them clutching a wrapped package and looking overjoyed at the simple fact that they actually came. And then she noticed Li, skidding to a stop with a worriedly unhappy noise. "Li-kun?" she questioned in clear confusion, Tomoyo videotaping her from the not-so-far background.

Li let out a humph, dropping down from the fence to the ground and tucking his exploding yellow papers into his pockets with a huff. Touya would have given almost anything to see all of them go off at that moment .

"Sakura-chan, To-ya said you wanted to see me?" Yuki asked sweetly, leaning over the fence slightly to better talk to her.

"Oh, yes!" Sakura said, tearing her attention away from watching her brother and her newest classmate try to kill each other with their eyes in favor of the eternally more wonderful Yukito-san with a little blush. "Um, I know it was Onii-chan's fault you missed the tournament," she said, punctuating her sentence with a glare of her own at Touya, who was too busy hating Li to notice. "But I still felt bad about it because I know you were really wanting to see how it worked, so Tomoyo-chan," she paused, sending a grateful look to her long haired friend, who retaliated with a cheery wave and a thumbs up, "gave me this to give to you. She said you can keep it; she doesn't need it back, so…" she finished embarrassedly, holding out the wrapped bag with both hands and bowing her head, hoping her peach-brown bangs could help cover her vibrant blush.

"Are you sure I can have this?" Yukito asked politely while Tomoyo cooed something in the background about how adorable Sakura-chan was. Sakura nodded vigorously, so Yuki gracefully took the bag from her, crouching down to be more her eyelevel with a gentle smile. "Thank you very much, Sakura-chan. I'm sure I'll like it very much."

Sakura made a little 'Hanyaa" noise of happiness, looking as though her entire world just might explode into flowers from her joy. "Um, um, Yukito-san?" she asked hopefully, looking up at him with shining, joyous green eyes. "Um, would you maybe like to come over to watch the national finals next week…?"

"Of course, Sakura-chan," Yuki laughed. "If you would like me to, I would be more than glad to come."

Sakura squealed her happiness and Li looked stupidly outraged for a long moment, his mouth hanging open in a speechless stare for a few full minutes before he started frantically searching his pockets, finally producing something he apparently found worthy and holding it up triumphantly.

Touya realized what he was doing a fraction of a second too late.

"Hey, wait you stupid-" he said, barely missing the boy as Li dashed off, skidding to a halt next to Yukito and shakily holding the item up in offering, his face a red that nearly rivaled Sakura on her best (or maybe worst) day. Yukito looked _almost_ nearly as surprised as everyone else.

"Is this for me?" he asked politely. The boy nodded so furiously Touya silently hoped his head would fall off. "Oh. Thank you very much," Yukito said, graciously taking the offering with another gentle smile that could have made anyone melt.

Li certainly felt the pressure, because now his entire face, neck, and torso had flushed brilliantly, and as soon as his hands were free he turned and fled, dashing back to the elementary school as fast as his suddenly shaking legs could go. The remaining four watched him leave in collective silence. Touya ambled over to Yukito curiously.

"What'd ya get?" he asked, peering over his friend's shoulder.

"Chocolate. Do you want some?" Yuki asked, holding up the candy bar sweetly. Touya shook his head no, so Yuki shrugged and popped it open himself before looking at Sakura's still-wrapped gift. "And… Can I open this?" he asked sweetly. Sakura dissolved fitfully into giggles, so Tomoyo stepped forward.

"You may want to wait until you get home," she said, keeping her camera expertly trained on Sakura without even glancing through the viewfinder, looking with her large amethyst eyes up at Yukito sweetly instead. "Some of the teachers may not approve of you having it in class; I would think it might cause quite a commotion."

Touya raised an eyebrow at that; he briefly wondered what could be so bad that she didn't want the teachers to see it, but he pushed down the urge to take the package from Yukito protectively because he was sure the Daidouji child wouldn't give anything _that _bad for her precious Sakura-chan to give as a gift. Instead he only held the gift when Yuki offered it to him so the silver-haired boy could better eat his newly acquired chocolate happily.

Just as they had suggested, Yukito had patiently waited until they had gotten home to look inside the gift package, and since Sakura wouldn't even tell Touya what was inside the bag and he didn't want to get caught peeking, he had not-so-grudgingly followed Yuki home as well to see what was inside. He had largely guessed already what was inside, but he hadn't guess what it looked like.

It was a doll. Well, more specifically, it was one of those Angel things he had been hearing so much about the past few days. It was maybe a foot tall, with short, messy brown hair, and he (Touya was mildly surprised to see the Angel was a boy; he'd only seen girls dolls before) was dressed in some strange white pilot-suit-type outfit, and he had some kind of red earpiece on the left side of his face. The doll was inactive, so his eyes were closed, and Touya suddenly realized that neither of them knew how to turn it on, and voiced this opinion to Yuki, who was already looking through the bag for any other papers, of which he found plenty.

"Here's a note from Tomoyo-chan," Yuki mused, ruffling through the papers absently. "She says he is a new model from her mother's company with some of the best synchronization rates out there. Does that mean he's easy to move?" Touya shrugged. He didn't know how any of this crap worked. "Oh. Well, she says she made him with an emphasis on speed and balance, but he's also got a pretty good kick, too. Oh, did we loose his sword?"

"Is that was this is supposed to be?" Touya asked, holding up a small, brightly-colored blade made from what he was sure was the finest glowing plastic available. Yuki nodded and then went back to skimming the page curiously.

"Oh, Sakura-chan already gave him a name," he said. "'Suzaku', huh? That's a good name for him, don't you think?"

Touya shrugged again. "Tomoyo probably named him, then. Sakura would have chosen some stupid name, knowing her," he said.

Yukito smiled up at him patronizingly before gingerly picking the doll up from the table, careful not to jostle it around too much. "Well, Suzaku-kun, it's very nice to meet you," he said, turning his sweet smile to the motionless doll. Touya rolled his eyes silently.

"He can't hear you, Yuki," he said before he could fully think about what was wrong with talking to a doll.

"How do you know he can't?" Yukito said, frowning slightly at Touya.

Touya was slightly taken back, raising both eyebrows highly at the boy. "Because he's a doll, Yuki," he said gently, carefully. "He's not a real person, he doesn't have a soul or a heart, so he can't understand or comprehend anything you say. That's just… how it is. How _he_ is."

Yukito stood up abruptly, his chair scraping loudly against the wood floor, his thin white hands shaking suddenly with some seldom felt emotion as he frowned with a furious calm down at the Angel, slowly lowering the doll to the wood with trembling limbs, his bottom lip quaking slightly as well before turning a sharp look to Touya. "So?" he said softly. "Just because he's a doll he can never be a person? Just because he's a doll, he can never think, feel, _be_ anything else? Is that it? Is that how it always has to be?"

Touya slowly stood as well, stunned. He'd never seen Yuki get angry before - he had honestly maybe started to think it wasn't possible to make Yuki angry, especially over such an unintentionally and joking comment - and had no idea what possibly could have caused it. Whatever it was, Touya severely doubted it had much of anything to do with the Angel doll his sister had given as a gift.

"Yuki…" he floundered, searching desperately for words as he carefully reached out with both hands to lightly grip the boy's upper arms, "Yuki, I don't know… I didn't mean…"

Yukito didn't fight his grip - he would never fight To-ya on anything - but just studied him closely with a cold, dead look in his usually lively and adoring honey eyes that sent a chill rushing up Touya's spine and a brick boiling in the pit of his stomach. "What can humans possibly know about souls, To-ya?" he said softly. "What can any of us know, really?"

"Yuki, what are you saying? Stop it," Touya asked desperately, clearly not understanding, and punctuating the last part with a little shake, trying to bring the boy back to himself. "Yuki, I don't… It doesn't matter. Look, I'm sorry, okay? I don't know what… I'm sorry. Please stop?" he tried, moving his hands from Yuki's arms to his face, the tips of his fingers of one hand gently brushing his friend's bangs from his face.

The boy's eyes widened, then softened, and what little frigidness had been in his thin shoulders vanished and he slumped forward with a sigh, sending Touya a pitifully pleading look. "To-ya, I… I'm tired," Yuki said timidly. "I'm sorry, too…"

"Hey, it's okay. Look, let's not worry about it anymore, okay?" Touya said gently, trying to suppress a grin of his own as Yuki's small, pale hands came up to cover his larger tan ones before he released the boy and turned his attention back to the doll with a blush (he had to learn to control that better; what if it acted up in public?) as he ruffled quickly through the papers. "So, how do we turn this thing on? I have no idea how to work this crap…"

Yukito huffed slightly, picking up the doll with a sad look. "It's okay, To-ya," he mumbled softly. "I think I saw what I wanted to know…"

Touya blinked, lowering the papers slowly. "Yuki, are you sure?" he asked cautiously. He still didn't know what was so touchy about this subject, and he didn't want to upset Yuki anymore. "You seemed so excited about it earlier…"

Yuki sighed, giving him a tired look and a strained smile. "It wasn't what I thought it was going to be," he said softly, carefully setting the lifeless Angel down in a sitting position. The doll slumped forward limply and Yukito winced, before looking very worried. "Please don't tell Sakura-chan! I don't want her to be upset about this, too…"

"Don't worry about it; Sakura said she didn't need it back," Touya said awkwardly, patting the boy on the head slightly in hopes of restoring some of his normal personality. "We can tell her the game wasn't something you liked as much as you thought you would. Sakura isn't that into it either; she'll understand if you say that."

His friend gave him a relieved, tired smile. Yuki was _never_ angry - it contradicted his base personality - so it probably drained a significant amount of energy even for that small outburst. "Thank you, To-ya," Yuki said softly, a bit embarrassed of his earlier actions, turning his attention back to the doll to help cover that up. "… So, what should we do with Suzaku-kun? I can't keep him, he's not mine, but if I give him back to Sakura-chan it will look ungrateful…"

"Throw it away?" He'd said it before he could stop himself, but he knew it was the wrong thing to say even before it was fully out of his mouth.

"_No_!" Yukito said harshly, clutching the doll protectively. He caught himself with a sharp breath, gingerly easing it away from his body with a little choking whimper. "No… I mean, we have to… _I _have to find somebody who will take care of him better. Suzaku-kun deserves that much, at least…"

Touya ran a hand through his hair stupidly with a sigh. He was so far out of his league it was actually funny. "I know, I'm sorry," he said. "Look, I'll… You don't look so good. Why don't you go get something to eat and take a nap; I'll take it - _Suzaku -_ to work with me and I'll see if I can find someone there who will take care of it - him, I mean." Yukito gave him a slightly suspicious look that would have been adorable on his normally happy and fluffy face if they hadn't been on such an apparently delicate subject. Touya held up his hands in a sign of good will. "I swear I won't throw it away! My job is about a block away from a Piffle Princess store; I'll find someone there who wants him, okay? I promise."

Yuki had given him the wary look for a grand total of four more seconds before he caved, handing Suzaku to Touya with a relieved noise and a happy grin again. "Thank you," he said sincerely to Touya, who took the doll gingerly as if it were a bomb. "Thank you, To-ya."

As soon as he was out of Yukito's eyesight he had stashed the doll back in the stack to avoid his coworkers from seeing it - they already were under the impression he was sissy enough as it was from the times Yuki had stopped by to visit him at work; the last thing he needed was to be seen carrying a doll - but true to his word, he had gone straight to the Piffle Princess store as soon as his shift ended, someplace he had never wanted to go for so long as he lived. Luckily for his self-esteem, when he was less than five feet away from the horrid front doors he had spotted a girl with an absolutely unspeakable amount of painfully bubblegum pink hair and purple eyes (she was one dedicated cosplayer, he thought in amazement) staring longingly at the Angelic Layer display in the window who had been thrilled to take Suzaku from him. Relieved, he had gone straight back to Yukito's house to report the success of his mission.

The boy had taken his advice, and Touya had found his friend curled up on top of his bed, glasses askew and sheets not even pulled up, and an empty gallon tub of ice cream on the floor nearby. Touya had sighed, thrown the bucket away, tucked the boy in soundly, and folded his glasses up on top of a note he had placed on the nightstand describing his accomplishment and Suzaku's new dues. He hadn't woken Yuki up - he looked so deep in a peaceful, happy slumber Touya couldn't bring himself to do it - but he did linger slightly longer than needed to ensure everything really was at ease, brushing some wayward silver bangs back gently with a fond shake of his head.

"You are still so weird," he'd whispered softly, mostly to himself. "But I guess must be why you like me."

Yuki had sighed softly in his sleep, muttering some unintelligible response that was lost in the void between dreams and waking, leaning into the touch slightly, so Touya had pulled his hand back quickly, making a quiet retreat down the stairs and out the door to avoid waking his friend. He was ready for a good nap, too, but before that, he had some stuff he wanted to ask Sakura. He wanted to see if she knew anything else about the boy with the flaming papers, just to see if his hunches were right.

And then maybe he would just go to bed, too. It'd been a hell of a past few days, after all. Sleep sounded good.

* * *

So, I did just try to work in Code Geass to Angelic Layer. I think this warrants a picture. The day I manage to draw one, the Code Geass community on LJ will be hearing from me. After all, it's no less weird than Cardcaptor Lulu. Which is still awesome. XD Here's hoping I can finish chapter nine for Monday. -salutes-


	9. The Transfer Student

Well, in response as to why this chapter was so long in the works, I have but this to say: Sometimes, crap happens. Not that any real crap happened to me, of course, but it just... took a while. I deeply appologize for the supper long wait, and I sincerely thank every one who waiting and so kindly reviewed this story; it really meant a lot to me! You have my deepest thanks, truly. -bows deeply- If you reviewed and I didn't get back to you, I'm sorry; I'll get back on top of that from now on, life had been really crazy for me lately.

Ah, one quick note thing, since I'm sure no one really check the LJ... CLAMP says this 'bout Onmyouji:

"_Omyouji _are spiritual mastares who use the principles of yin and yang and the five elements to combat supernatural forces and communicate with the spirit world. The term is sometimes translated as exorcist or shaman, but it's a distinctly Eastern occupation that is rooted in the Buddhist tradition. In Japan, Onmyouji are as important to pop culture and literature as wizards are in the West." -- Taken from the back of Tokyo Babylon. Um, also, those who aren't familiar with Tokyo Babylon should know that the Sumeragi clan (headed by the rather fandom-famous Subaru) is a CLAMP-created family best-known for their Onmyouji duties. (And yeah, there was a reason for the fan-saying, "Say, at least you're not Subaru." I was very amused when it was justifiably changed to "Subaru, at least you're not Fay.")

Warnings of possible OOC-ness, crossovers, a little cussing, some non-definable words that I guess made up 'cause I thought they were real words, and crap like that. I really don't know how the modern day populace in Japan thinks about Onmyouji, so I guessed. But then again, I didn't get that SUNSHINE60 song from FLOW until I was reading the back of Tokyo Babylon to quote that Onmyouji bit, so what would I know? Sorry for the long intro-chat. Yuck.

* * *

Given his previous luck with the local library and his rather remarkable skill at holding grudges, it had taken several hours as well as a very powerful motive to convince Kinomoto Touya to return. None-the-less, eventually he discovered that his dislike and suspicion of the Li boy _far_ outweighed his deep desire not to return to the so-called 'place of learning'.

Sakura had, ultimately, known nothing more about the Chinese boy than when he had interrogated her the first time, but Touya was a powerful believer in the far underappreciated art of hunches and had decided to once more try his luck at the library. It had gone better this time, partly because he'd had a good idea as to where to start, but mostly because he hadn't needed to talk to the reference librarian who had sent him on a idiotic wild goose chase before. Touya had noted with no small feeling of satisfaction that she had taken her lunch break early after several moments of heated glares being sent in her direction from across the room.

With that annoying distraction gone, it hadn't taken long to find what he was looking for. Unsurprisingly, his hunch had been correct, and a quick search of all registered Hong Kong Onmyouji families had revealed the Li clan at the very top of the list.

So the brat came from an 'Onmyouji' family, just as he had wondered. Well, half-wondered. Even dealing with ghosts and spirits as often as Touya did still did not completely prepare one to simply accept it when a person claimed to come from a supposedly Onmyouji family, but he _had_ heard of stranger things. Unfortunately this only made his respect for the brat plummet, a feat he had previously thought impossible.

Touya had, thanks to his mother, grown up surrounded by countless tales of the heroic and epic works of the Sumeragi clan and other well-known Onmyouji families, though he himself had long since written these stories off as irrelevant, humoring them more out of respect for his mother's love off such things rather than any real interest of his own. He could care less what the Onmyouji were doing when he wasn't looking because, hell, he wasn't looking. You had to notice something to care about it, in his opinion.

But now there was this snot-faced little brat claiming to be from an Onmyouji family - his sweet, dead mother's favorite literature idea - a boy whose only shown powers so far included causing pieces of paper to explode on unsuspecting victims and bullying little girls. Not the quickest way to get on Touya's good side.

Not that Touya really even believed in Onmyouji anymore, of course - he was more of a 'need to see to believe' type, personally, and he'd never come into contact with any actual, certified Onmyouji and would most likely need some serious convincing even to buy that - but it was almost just as much about the very principle, the idea and the thought rather than any actual insult. Nevertheless, he had to admit the theory sounded almost laughable even to him - and he had come up with it - so he'd kept his little 'discovery' to himself, instead settling with yet another severe warning to Sakura to stay away from the boy and left it at that.

If the boy being an Onmyouji was important, he was sure it would bring itself up again. In the mean time, there were other things he could think of to dislike the boy over, and things that he could currently see to care about.

* * *

Touya had actually been glad for summer vacation, and not for any particularly specific reason. Okay, so maybe he was happy for a good excuse to properly prevent Sakura from speaking with the Li brat, something he had noticed with not small feeling of pure horror that she was avoiding less and less. But overall he was just enjoying the time away from school, and for once he didn't book all of his time with work. Most of his free time (when he wasn't harassing his sister) he spent with Yuki, reading or studying for career choices and colleges, a pastime that Yukito seemed less-than-enthralled by but humored anyway. It had been a surprisingly relaxing time, and he had actually been rather upset to have school start up again.

Especially after the first day back.

It had started off pleasantly enough - he and Yuki were still in the same class, and they even got to sit near to each other once again - and while he had noticed a strange presence "introduce itself," it had been mild and unthreatening enough that he was able to write it off for the most part.

It wasn't until the teacher had announced they had a new student that the pit of his stomach dropped to the floor.

She looked and sounded pleasant enough - long red hair done up in an almost painful attempt at cuteness, large gray-brown eyes and a clear, perfect Japanese accent even though she claimed to be American - but there was just something about her aura that set him off, something different, something that, well, frankly reminded him of Yuki.

Except this girl was not like Yuki, not at all, he thought with a little bristle as she gleefully introduced herself, scanning the class briefly in the process and zeroing in on his friend. Something in her gaze sharpened dangerously, causing Yuki to blink once in confusion, glancing to Touya in his uncertainty as to what to do in the face of such pure hate and Touya shook his head silently in reassurance. She may feel like Yuki, sure, but now he was positive this girl was the polar opposite of his friend. He was too busy trying to wordlessly sign to Yuki to ignore her and Yuki was too busy trying to understand his point to notice her gaze had shifted until Akizuki Nakuru had already snuck behind them both and securely wrapped her arms firmly around Kinomoto Touya's neck, cheerily announcing in between rubbing her cheek against the back of his head that she was very happy to have gotten to sit in the desk behind him.

It had taken the teacher's help and three minuets to pry her off. Yukito had been strangely silent the entire time.

* * *

Touya spent the remainder of the morning classes in pure hell. Akizuki seemed absolutely, one-hundred-percent determined to make sure that she was, without a doubt, the sole winner of the Largest Pain in the Ass Award (which she easily was). The girl insisted on whispering to him, trying to pass notes to him, asking bogus questions she clearly knew the answer to, poking him, playing with his hair, tacking heinously cute nametags on his uniform, and just making a general nuisance of herself. Touya had actually gotten scolded by the teacher multiple times for causing 'classroom disruptions' in his righteously valiant self-preservation attempts. To make things worse, Yuki looked as if he were feeling ill again that morning, and every time he thought Akizuki had settled down to allow him to check on the boy, she would make an even louder nuisance of herself whenever his friend tried to respond, causing Yuki to shrink back a little, which he later claimed to have been because he 'didn't want To-ya to end up in any more trouble with the teacher.'

Lunchtime was no better. If anything, it was worse.

Akizuki seemed to have made it an official sport to literally pounce on him from every conceivable point and angle. She should count herself lucky he had grown up being taught that it was wrong to hit girls, he thought bitterly as he once more struggled to untangle her arms from around his neck, succeeding at long last in freeing himself from the madly giggling parasite and making a mad dash through the halls to meet Yuki at their customary spot, hoping to loose her in the senseless rush of the lunchtime crowds.

They'd both been so relieved to have a quiet moment alone again.

Unfortunately it hadn't lasted long, and Akizuki had found them again in under ten minuets. From the second she bounded into view with a shrill call that he supposed might have been considered his name, Touya knew there would be no more peace that afternoon and promptly sprang to his feet and began shouting rather profane curses at what he saw to be as a rapidly approaching demon, much to the shock of his friend and the utter non-deterrence of the girl.

"I saw you sitting over here all by yourself and decided to come by and keep you company," Akizuki said with a bounce and a smile. It hadn't been an offer.

"No thank you," Touya ground out, barely pushing down a much more colorful response due to his awareness of Yuki's insistence of politeness and his own desire not to receive another 'cursing' talk.

Akizuki was not easily discouraged.

"Don't be silly," she cooed, plopping herself promptly between him and Yuki despite his best indignant protests. "Look, I even brought a delicious, homemade lunch we can share," she said, presenting a cutely-wrapped bento as proof.

"I already have a lunch," he growled, backing away from the offending offer warily.

"I don't see your lunch," Akizuki sang annoyingly.

"I have a lunch!" Touya snapped, edging around her to pick up his discarded paste bun and wondering how she managed to remain so perfectly positioned between himself and Yukito without moving a single muscle.

"Tomoeda is such a cute little town," Akizuki said, completely ignoring both of them in favor of her insanely adorable lunch box. "Touya-kun, you'll have to give me a tour soon."

"I can't. I'm… busy," he said, sending a desperately floundering look over her head to his equally baffled friend.

"For how long?" Akizuki asked, thoroughly undeterred.

"For… forever," he ground out, making a strong, conscious effort to relax his hand so as not to crush the bun in his hand. "I will be busy for forever."

"I see…" Akizuki said with mock thoughtfulness before breaking out into a huge grin. "So how about Sunday? You can pick me up at three."

Somewhere around the word 'Sunday', he lost what little restrain he had and he heard more than saw the bun rupture, resulting in a wet splatter of gooey paste erupting against the nice, pressed white of his uniform shirt. Wordlessly, Touya took a deep breath and unclenched his fist, letting the crushed remains of the snack fall to the ground with a juicy squelch and closed his eyes, trying vainly to center and calm himself again. He could hear Yukito let out a softly worried noise and scramble to his feet, presumably to find a cloth to help To-ya clean up (Yuki would be the number one expert on removing food stains, a back part of his brain thought dryly) but the noise was mostly drowned out by the much more overpowering sound of Akizuki jumping to her feet with a loud screech. Touya barely had time to prepare himself before he was assaulted with an armful of squealing girl armed with a deeply insulting cloth in an unwanted attempt to 'help' him clean the paste from his shirt, nearly knocking Yukito over in her rush.

That was just too much, he thought with a veritable growl as he reached up and forcefully ripped the cloth from her hand and shoved her back as hard as he could without actually physically harming her, giving the girl a long suffering look of pure hate while crumpling the offending cloth and viciously grinding it into the remains of the paste bun on the ground.

There was a long period of awkward silence as both of the strange foreigners stared at him with wide-eyed looks of pure shock from their respective places on the ground.

"To-ya…" Yuki whispered, and Akizuki glanced at him for the first time since she had first introduced herself before looking back to Touya and making to get back up.

Touya sent Yukito a briefly apologetic look over her head before wordlessly turning on his heel and storming back to the school, clearly intending not to be followed. Right before he was out of hearing range he thought he heard Yukito timidly asking, "Would you like a bean bun, Akizuki-san?" and it was almost enough to make him smile again.

Of course, that was before he found out how Akizuki responded.

* * *

The rest of the school day was, without a single shadow of a doubt, hell incarnated. Touya had been forced to button his heavy school blazer to hide the bean paste on his white shirt, which was much to hot for the summer season and made a nasty wet patch that squelched against his stomach uncomfortably whenever he breathed. Akizuki had not been long put off in her relentless harassment of his sanity, and Yukito had been strangely withdrawn for the remainder of the day. The one thing he had been hoping to provide some form of relief was the first soccer meeting of the semester, partly due to the hope that Akizuki had been too busy stalking him to hear about his involvement with the club. As soon as classes had ended he had sent a Look of his own to Yuki that he hoped sent the message to meet him at the field and then made another feverish attempt to lose himself in the mass of other students in the halls.

His plan had worked to a limited degree, as he had made it to the locker room and changed without further incident - it had been so wonderful to finally be able to get out of the grossly sticky shirt; that would be hell to wash out, he was sure - and practice even went remotely uninterrupted. The one problem was that Yukito was not at the field when practice started. In fact, his friend was suspiciously absent throughout the majority of the practice, finally sliding into the grandstands towards the end of the session.

"I brought you a towel," Yuki offered quietly after the meet had ended, presenting the fluffy cloth to him where they had met next to the stands.

"Thanks," Touya responded, taking the towel and draping it casually over his shoulders. He really didn't need it, but he appreciated the effort anyway. Besides, he thought it looked cool. "Where were you? I thought you said you were going to help out with this one today."

"Sorry. I forgot," Yukito said lamely, staring at the ground intently but still very able to distinguish an expectant silent from a normal one. "I was… thinking."

"You were thinking for an hour and a half?" Touya asked, raising an eyebrow when his friend nodded hesitantly. "About what?"

"Just… thinking," Yukito said, and they lapsed into a relative silence as they began walking back to the locker room. Midway across the field, Yukito stopped in his tracks, sending Touya a worried look. "To-ya, do you think I'm stupid?" he asked quietly.

"Why would you even ask that?" Touya asked incredulously, also stopping in his tracks to send his friend a confused look.

Yuki turned bright pink. "I was just… Someone said… You do think that then?"

"No, of course I don't," Touya said hastily. "Someone told you I think that?"

"Well, not exactly…" his friend murmured, still not quite looking at him directly. "It's just… someone said they thought I was, so I wanted to know if you thought so too."

"Who the hell would be stupid enough to say…" Touya started. But then he remembered about Akizuki. He'd forgotten about her for a blissful moment, but it made sense. No one else would think to say anything even remotely degrading to Yukito. "What did she say?" he asked firmly.

"To-ya, you don't have to-"

"Yuki, what did she say to you?" he repeated sternly. Yukito caved without further objection.

"She said she thought I was a moron," his friend blurted quickly. "That something was wrong with my head because I can never notice anything. She told me I didn't deserve this life, especially if I couldn't figure anything out. I don't know what she meant, but it was very upsetting. Do you think so too?"

Touya groaned, massaging his forehead tiredly. He was seriously going to kill this girl if she didn't learn to keep her mouth shut and back off. "Yuki that's crap, all of it," he said solemnly, giving his friend a level look. "For one thing, you have one of the highest grades in our class, in our year, even. Is that stupid?"

"Well, no, but-"

"You're a little slow when it comes to understanding people sometimes, sure, and sometimes I do _occasionally_ wonder just how many times you were dropped on your head as a baby, but you know how to deal with people and books, something I'm not even going to pretend I understand," Touya said, flicking the boy in the head lightly. "Just because your observation skills leave much to be desired and you're a little slow on the uptake does _not_ make you a moron. It just means you have more brain room to apply to other things. Got it?"

Yukito smiled up at him gratefully as Touya ruffled the boy's hair playfully for good measure, and opened his mouth to say something which was, unfortunately, cut off by a loud, shrill cry of, "Touya-_kun_!"

Within the next ten seconds Touya had an insanely giggling, one-hundred-something pound weight forcefully attached to his neck. He staggered, gagging slightly, as Yuki made what was easily the closest to an indignant splutter he had ever heard come from his friend.

"Touya-kun, did you miss me?" Akizuki sang joyously in his ear.

"Oh _God_, did I miss you…" Touya gasped out, sarcasm nearly dripping from his strained voice. Yukito was apparently still unable to recognize sarcasm as the separate language it was and sent Touya a vaguely horrified look. Akizuki didn't seem to notice too much either, because she let out another delighted squeal and began chattering mundane monstrosities at the back of his neck.

Unfortunately, the majority of the soccer team was now gaping at the scene, including the coach, and being kicked off the team for violence was not an option after his recent promotion, so he had few other options for now but to wait for her to take a deep breath and duck out of her grip, making a mad dash across the field towards the guy's locker room at top speed, shouting over his shoulder for Yuki to follow him. Yukito paused, blinking dumbly at the air where he used to be standing while Akizuki flailed about awkwardly in a vain attempt to keep her balance, then quietly excused himself and trotted off after Touya.

It took careful tactical planning from Touya, but they were eventually able to escape the locker room and get to the bike rack undetected. For a brief moment of pure horror, he thought he heard his name being called as he was untying his bike, but it turned out to be another student with an ironically similar name and they got away from school without further incident. Touya had still peddled harder to get home than he could ever recall in his recent history.

Home didn't provide much more comfort than school; he spent most of the remainder of the afternoon suspiciously peeking out the windows to reassure himself that they had not been followed, and he had even insisted Yuki had to go through the back door when his friend had finally gotten tired and wanted to go leave, forcing the boy to climb two wooden privacy fences and three bushes just to get to the road. Sakura had arrived home moments later, giggling and overjoyed about something he feared had everything to do with seeing a certain person again and really, that had just made things worse. One ten-minuet-long name calling, sibling spat later had found them both securely shut in their rooms, each sulking about a rotten turn in what could have otherwise been a fine day.

It truly had been a horrible, no good day, he decided. But with any luck, the feeble, undernourished optimistic part of his mind offered, tomorrow could be better.

The next day wasn't better. If anything, it was worse, due to the fact that he spent all morning and the night before dreading the rest of the day.

* * *

Akizuki was just as obnoxious and unforgiving as the previous day, and Yukito spent most of his time looking slightly downtrodden, providing little comfort to Touya in face of his constant harassment. Akizuki had actually been waiting for them under the tree come lunch time, but luckily he had spotted her and adjusted his course accordingly before she had seen them, instead steering Yukito back inside to eat in the classroom. Unfortunately, Akizuki had still found them within ten minuets. From then on, it became a bit of an unfriendly game of hide-and-seek every lunch, with Touya dragging Yukito to increasingly unexpected places to scarf down his food and then dash off as soon as he heard the girl coming.

And you could always, _always_ hear her coming, skipping down the halls or up the stairs or across the lawn to wherever he had hidden them with her evil, evil happy giggle. God, how he hated her.

Eventually, and Touya honestly did not know how this had surprised him so much, Yukito had gotten tired of this new routine and had gently offered to go eat somewhere else so To-ya could better hide himself. Touya was opening his mouth to protest when the source of all his troubles had once more attached herself round his neck, presumably having dropped from the window above them.

Yuki had left before he had managed to pull her off.

Work had provided a little relief for a while - Yuki would still follow him to work occasionally - until Akizuki heard about his after school habits and began showing up to his various jobs. The first time this had happened, his reaction had been so strong he had actually been dismissed for 'frightening the customers with his explosive behavior'. After that, he had just taken it upon himself to quit as soon as she located him, knowing full well her relentless tenacity when it came to stalking. But this proved to be more than inefficient, he discovered after cycling through the first few jobs painfully quickly, and had finally learned to just grit his teeth and ignore it.

Unfortunately, that had seemed well out of the reach of his friend, because Yukito seemed increasingly unwilling to have anything at all to do with the girl, instead preferring to quietly slip unnoticed out the back whenever Akizuki would make an appearance. And though it was with great reluctance, Touya almost had to admit it was better that way. She didn't seem to bother him as much when Yuki wasn't around. In fact, she seemed to have a harder time finding him when Yuki wasn't there, and her assaults weren't nearly as unremitting. Sure, he was a bit lost without the now familiar and reassuring presence of the boy by his side, and sure, he had developed a constant nagging feeling in his stomach that was warning him he was missing what he was suppose to be doing, but surely that was better than having his life veritably ruined by this hell spawn of a girl. Besides, Yukito was more than capable of looking out for himself during the weekdays, and he still tried to arrange random meetings with his friend over the weekends, though they were occurring less and less often. Touya wasn't sure which of them were handling it better, but he was very aware that it was much more likely that neither of them were dealing with the separation well at all.

His family certainly seemed to think the latter was the case, even though they wisely chose to largely keep their silence and not root around too deeply in his personal business. Though he couldn't miss the rather disapproving and severe looks they weren't really sending him. His dad had tried once to unsuccessfully sit him down for a talk to 'check up on him', and Sakura had started the 'separation period' by constantly demanding to know where her precious Yukito-san was, but after some rather extreme reactions from Touya both of these occurrences ground to a screeching halt.

The one rather unexpected, rather irrelevant good 'effect' was that at least Touya had not seen _one_ spirit or unusual being since he had 'parted ways' with Yukito. In fact, nearly everything was reverting back to the way things had been before he had met the boy, except of course for the awful girl who had caused the problem. Surprisingly, the reverting to his previous lifestyle was actually rather… unfulfilling, so he tried not to give it a whole lot of thought.

After two weeks, it was almost as if Tsukishiro Yukito didn't exist, and Touya felt just as horrible about that thought as he had always worried he would. Still, he didn't feel there was much he could do, seeing that Akizuki would spring into torturous action as soon as he so much as turned to talk to the now nearly-silent boy sitting beside him, and Yukito seemed thoroughly unwilling to place such an annoying burden on him.

Several days later, Touya was all-too-aware of the opportunity of a turning point being very plainly offered to him.

He had been on his way to the bike rack at the end of a painfully long day, followed by an equally exhausting soccer practice when it had happened. He had been half-sneaking through the bushes, moving as quickly as possible to the gate in an attempt not to be seen, when he was suddenly made aware that someone was already at his bike before he even rounded the corner.

Someone tense, expectant. Someone not quite normal. Someone with an aura he couldn't have missed in the largest crowd imaginable.

Wordlessly, he took a deep breath and rounded the corner.

"To-ya," Yukito breathed out softly in relief as soon as he came into sight, perched carefully on his bike seat with a little blush on his too-pale cheeks.

Touya himself sighed, feeling his shoulders droop in relief of his own, almost half-expecting some form of sneak attack. "Yuki," he greeted as well, nodding once at the stupidly happy smile that spread over his friend's face in response, trotting over the rest of the distance and beginning to unhook his bike from the rack. "What's up? I thought you'd have gone home by now."

"Um, Yuki wanted to see To-ya," the boy offered weakly, flushing nervously. Touya frowned slightly; he knew his friend was fully capable of creating a grammatically correct sentence, unless something was really distracting him. Something big. Something emotional.

"What's wrong?" he asked, frowning deeper.

"Um, To-ya, Yuki…" the boy started, fidgeting with his hands in his lap before shaking his head wordlessly as if disagreeing with himself and looking up at Touya hopefully. "Is To-ya going home now?"

"Yeah, I am," Touya said. "Yuki, are you okay?"

"Can… can I come with you?" Yukito asked softly.

Touya blinked again, honestly caught off guard. "Yuki, what happened?"

There was a long, pained silence as the boy visibly fought with his next words, wringing his hands anxiously in his lap once again before taking a deep breath and finally looking up to fix Touya with a level, serious look.

"To-ya," Yukito said, and there was something in his expression that just scared him more than he would ever like to think about but just couldn't place. "To-ya, today, at my house, I was… I think I-"

"Touya-kun!" a painfully shrill voice called abruptly. Yukito paled visibly, sending him a desperate look as Akizuki noisily skipped into view. "Oh, I'm glad I caught you before you left; the coach says he want to talk to you today, something about the season line-up for the team or some garbage like that. I wouldn't know; I haven't got a clue about sports." And then she flicked her hair and batted her eyes at him in a way that he supposed was meant to be cute and flirtatious. Touya nearly gagged.

"To-ya, please," he thought he heard his friend say, but when he turned to look Yukito never seemed to have spoken.

"Yuki, you come with me," he offered instead, gesturing at the boy to follow even as he turned towards the school again.

"I'll walk with you," Akizuki gushed, skipping up ahead of his merrily. The noise he made in return could barely begin to express the pure disgust he felt at the mere sight of her.

"Don't think I haven't figured out what you're doing," he growled warningly. Akizuki laughed humorously.

"What?" she asked innocently.

Touya didn't respond, blinking back at Yukito, who had finally reached out and grabbed at the back of his shirt to stop him. "Yuki?"

"To-ya, please, this is really important, you have to listen," his friend whispered imploringly, his big gold eyes wide and shining with something Touya had never seen on his face before. Touya paused, not sure how to respond for a while.

"Touya-kun, you have to hurry!" Akizuki called loudly, waving energetically. "The coach said it's really important, and the rest of the team is already there. They're all waiting on you, slow poke!"

"Yuki, I… Can it possibly… Meet me at my house in a little bit and we'll talk, okay?" he said, patting his friend's head for good measure like he always had in a way he hoped was comforting. Yukito made a small, desperate noise that made his throat clench in a way he didn't know how to deal with at all, so he just choked on whatever response he might have had, patted Yuki on the head once more and turned about on his heels to head back to the school, hoping it was enough and trying to figure out exactly what emotion he had seen on his friend's face.

Maybe it had been fear. Most likely it had been something else. In the end, he had never asked, so he could never say for sure.

* * *

Of course, no one had been waiting for him at the soccer field, though why he hadn't realized this sooner was more frustrating than the realization that he had been tricked. Akizuki had merrily laughed him off then skipped away with a cheery wave before he'd had a chance to properly inform her of his full opinion, and Yukito had not been waiting for him again when he'd managed to get back to his bike, so he'd gone home feeling strangely sick to his stomach. As soon as he was home, Touya had tried calling Yuki's house, but no one had answered (come to think of it, had Yuki ever answered his phone when it was important?) and he had ruled out visiting his friend in person because his dad was needing to work late that night and he couldn't really leave Sakura home alone.

He'd had the perfect opportunity to change things, change something big, and somehow he had missed it.

With that thought in mind, he'd been unable to calm his stomach enough to eat supper that night.

The next day was the weekend, and try as he might he still could not get in touch with Yukito, no matter how frequently he called, and so he had spent the rest of the morning in a spectacular sulk. Nothing of great importance happened for the greater part of the morning, until he heard the phone ring downstairs a few minuets before noon, but Sakura ran screaming down the hallway that she would get it. Surprisingly, less than a minuet later she was knocking on his door sullenly.

"Onii-chan," she mumbled, grudgingly pushing his door open with a definite downcast air.

"Go away," he drawled in response, not even lifting his head from the pillows. "If it's one of your stupid friends, you can't go anywhere and no one can come over."

"You jerk," Sakura huffed, crossing her arms irritably. "It's for you, but I just might not give it to you now."

Touya sat up abruptly. "Is that Yuki? Sakura, hand it over."

"Not unless you promise to not be mean, stop hogging the phone, and not use the other phone to find out who I'm talking to and ruin my conversation whenever I get a phone call," Sakura countered with a triumphant air. Touya felt his eye twitch.

"I'm not discussing terms here, Kaijuu, now give me the phone," he demanded, holding his hand out abruptly.

Sakura smirked mischievously. "Oh, what's this?" she sneered, holding the phone in question up and pointing to one of the buttons. "Is this the button to hang up? I dunno; I guess I should just press it to find out…" she said, slowly inching her hand closer to the phone.

"Sakura, don't you dare," he growled warningly, though his younger sibling seemed fairly unimpressed. "I mean it, Sakura, you monster, drop it and run!"

This had resulted in a brief, pillow-oriented skirmish from which Touya was successful in not only obtaining the still-active phone but also in pushing his outraged little sister back from his room.

"Hello?" he panted into the receiver, hoping vainly that the sounds of the girl screaming through the door at him were not too audible through the wood.

"That was cute, was she your sister?" an irritatingly familiar voice was laughing at him from the other end of the line. "But anyway, I think you and I need to have a talk. Are you free for lunch? My treat of course."

* * *

"Sure, here they call it 'Chinese food'," his current lunch companion was saying, twirling a piece of beef about on chopsticks nimbly, "but I wonder what they call it in China. Is it just 'food' there?"

Touya didn't say anything; over the past couple months he'd really developed a bit of an unexplained dislike for China and it's 'food'.

The other sighed miserably, gingerly placing the beef back on his plate almost sadly. "I… didn't know this had meat in it what I ordered it," Vash mumbled finally. "I don't… Meat doesn't sit well with me."

"You a vegetarian or something?" Touya asked, then wished he hadn't. It wasn't like he actually wanted to talk to this guy or anything.

"Well, you know the Sad Cow Eyes speech?" Touya didn't; his family had never seen anything wrong with eating meat, but he shrugged anyway. "I practically invented that speech," Vash finished with a little laugh.

"It's a good source of protein," Touya recited, remembering years of his father talking them into finishing their food.

"I can find another source of protein that didn't have it's thoughts and feelings taken away to give it," Vash responded dully, resting his chin on his hand and twirling a lone noodle about with a single chopstick absently.

Touya frowned, folding his arms over his chest crossly. This ass had called him out here in the middle of his day off claiming something important needed to be discussed, and so far the only thing they had 'discussed' so far was food and it's Chinese…ness. He was only there at all because hell, if someone who says they're a cop wants to talk to you, you can't exactly say no. But that didn't mean he had to be nice about it.

"Plants are alive too, you know," he said sourly, arguing more for the sake of being contrary than because he actually cared. Vash gave him an odd look, so he pressed on quickly. "I mean, it's been scientifically proven that they have communication techniques, defense mechanisms, and can feel pain and fear. I'm sure they don't like being eaten any more than that cow does, but you gotta eat something. That's just part of being alive."

There was a very long, awkward silence as the blond continued to give him an unexplained, intense look until Touya grudgingly conceded defeat, lowering his gaze to glare at his own untouched food moodily.

"Okay," Vash said abruptly, his whole demeanor changing nearly instantly with a clap of his hands. Touya looked up, surprised, as the blonds' gaze softened, and he leaned forward to rest his chin in both palms in what Touya supposed was meant to mock the pose an overly-excited girl takes when gossiping about something particularly juicy, smiling at him earnestly. "So spill it. What's bothering you?"

"What?" Touya asked incredulously, sitting up as if offended.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Vash responded curtly. "I can tell something's bothering you, there's no hiding that, so you might as well tell voluntarily. Maybe I can help."

Touya gaped stupidly for a moment, then dropped his head to his hands and massaged his forehead in disbelief. "I don't believe this," he sighed, taking a deep breath and then slamming his fist against the table top roughly, sending the blond a deeply disapproving look. "I can't believe this. You drag me out here, to a restaurant I don't even like, saying you need to talk to me about something 'important', and all you have to say is crap about meat and ask if something was _bothering_ me! That's just- Did you honestly think that was funny or something?"

"I do want to talk to you, and I think you'll agree that it is important," the foreigner said with a pleasant air of minor impatience.

"So say it already!" interjected Touya, who had never been known for the particular virtue of patience anyway.

"_But_," Vash stressed pointedly, "I wanted to see if you had anything to add first so I could get a better idea about how much you know of the situation."

"How can I comment on a 'situation' when I don't even know what the subject is?" Touya persisted stubbornly.

Vash sighed, throwing his hands up and glancing up to the sky as if he was asking the heavens for divine patience. "Obviously I thought too highly of you to think you would be able to handle this well and maturely," he said. "Way to crush my expectations."

"Hey now, you-"

"Shut up," Vash said sternly, sending Touya a level look. "You remind me _way_ too much of someone else for your blood pressure to be at a healthy level. Is it, by the way?"

Touya shrugged wordlessly. He'd never checked, so he didn't know.

"You should check into that," Vash nodded sagely. "You stress too much for it to be healthy. So shut up, lighten up, and listen up because this isn't about you. I'm worried about Usagi-kun."

"'Usagi-kun'? Please tell me you aren't trying to refer to-"

"Oh for goodness sake, names are a _formality_, you know who I meant."

Touya frowned, deeply disapproving. "What?" he asked intelligently.

"Something's really been bothering him, and at first I thought it was just your fault and wasn't going to say anything, but now I'm not so sure," Vash said, sending Touya a too-serious look with those too-intense green eyes. "So one of the reasons I asked you out here was to see if you knew anything at all about this. Like, say, what might be causing it, for starters?"

Touya felt the bottom of his stomach drop out into oblivion. "Bothering him how?" he tried lamely. Vash raised an eyebrow at him.

"You mean you haven't noticed? Geez, you must be even stupider than I thought," the blond asked, scratching the back oh his head in contemplation as he promptly ignored Touya's vehement and justified objections. "Well, let's see… Nervousness, visibly uncomfortable, tiredness, inability to concentrate, loss of appetite, which, of course, means he still eats way more than I do, but, you know, less than normal. There are other things, but… You really haven't noticed?"

"I've been busy," Touya snapped defensively, then quieted down guiltily. "I… haven't been able to spend much time with Yuki lately," he said, averting his gaze surreptitiously and trying not to think of the day before. The cop frowned slightly in return.

"Why not?" he asked sternly, folding his long arms on the table top.

"Well, there's been this girl," Touya started nervously, "and she…"

"You dumped your best friend for 'some girl'?" Vash asked in amazement.

"No! Of course not!" Touya blurted, then realized what was being said with a blush. "I mean, I didn't dump him! I mean, damn it, you can't dump someone you're not dating!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh, don't need to be so defensive…"

"I am _not_ being defensive!"

"And anyway, that's beside the point," the blond said, gesturing calmly that they should just put that subject aside for another time. Touya honestly hoped to whatever God was listening that this 'other time' never came, because talking about dating Yukito really had made his stomach hurt. "So," Vash continued, "what is this girl doing that's made it so you can't spend time with your dear friend anymore?"

"Well, she's been… bothering me. I mean, she just pops up out of nowhere and makes a huge mess of everything whenever Yuki tried to talk to me and she just… didn't seem to come around as often when he wasn't around either, so I thought…" Touya trailed off, abruptly realizing how perfectly stupid it all sounded and scowling all the harder for it. "Look, don't you roll your eyes at me, Yuki figured it out too! He doesn't like her either, so he's been avoiding both of us!"

"I didn't roll my eyes at you, it's not a habit of mine," Vash said patiently, frowning at the table thoughtfully. "That just doesn't make any sense… You said Usagi-kun has tried to talk to you? That was my fault; I told him if something was really bothering him he should mention something to you. What did he say?"

Touya shook his head again. "Not much. He was acting really strange."

"Nervous?"

"Yeah, very."

"Scared?"

"No. I dunno. What would Yuki have to be scared of? He was just talking to me, after all," Touya said, frowning.

Vash shrugged. "You know him better than I do, and he obviously likes you better than anyone else," the blond said thoughtfully, pausing a moment in contemplation before giving Touya a long look. "So here's the big money question: What could possibly be making someone like Usagi-kun so uncomfortable that he's having a hard time even to share it with you?"

Touya truly didn't want to bring himself to answer.

* * *

Yukito was actually having a really bad day.

He woke up feeling like his stomach was infested with dozens of live butterflies waging war against each other, and since it was the weekend he didn't even have school to look forward in hopes of getting his mind off the sensation. Even Vash-san, who had been so patient and kind all those times he had called before wanting to get out of his house gently reminded him that it was four in the morning and none of the shops would be open for hours even if he hadn't had some lunch meeting that day. Yukito hung up the phone feeling wider awake than he ever felt during the day anymore but eventually crawled back into bed anyway, clutching his stuffed rabbit and the framed picture from Christmas to himself tightly. He positioned the picture carefully on his pillow so that what little light was coming from outside was illuminating To-ya's face.

It still didn't helped him sleep, though.

Instead, he laid for hours staring at the crescent moon necklace hanging in his window and tracing the same pattern engraved in his chest over and over again.

Come morning, breakfast didn't taste right because his stomach was still in the middle of some insectoid revolutionary battle, and the noise from the television only startled him, so he blindly convinced himself that the school archery team was having a practice session that day and set out with the utmost haste.

He thought about calling To-ya, but he decided he didn't want to bother him just because his stomach was feeling a little funny.

By the power of pure luck, the archery team was having a practice, and they didn't mind him spending time there, regardless of the fact that he hadn't hit a single target in weeks.

He was still there as the afternoon was coming to a close, hours after everyone else had left, standing alone in the far corner of the field with his favorite bow and a bucket of the practice arrows at his feet. He was absolutely determined that he would not leave that field until he could hit the target at least once.

He had been so good at this before. It was absolutely maddening now that he had fallen so low.

Taking a deep, hopefully steadying breath, Yukito mutely raised his bow again, taking careful aim just as he had done since he first tried out for the sport on an unconscious whim, and just basked in the warmth of the setting sun as he tried to stop his hands from shaking.

Just breath slowly, calmly, focus, and relax, you can do this, he imagined To-ya telling him reassuringly, and he closed his eyes to better visualize his friend standing beside him. You can do this, Yuki, you've done it so many times before.

Stupidly reassured, he opened his eyes to let the arrow go, only to have his vision cloud once again at the last second, which caused him to jerk the bow downwards. He heard the arrow thunk dully into the ground several feet in front of him as he furiously scrubbed at his stinging eyes.

Another epic failure, he thought miserably. Good job, Tsukishiro, you're on a real roll today.

Sighing softly and opening his eyes again reluctantly after wiping away what moisture he could, Yukito was more than prepared to stay out here all night if that's what it took.

It was around that time that he noticed most of his line of vision consisted of a rather large water bottle.

"I ran into the archery team captain by accident this afternoon," a slightly red-faced To-ya was saying by way of explanation. "He also told me that you'd been here all day, and, more importantly, that you hadn't taken a break for food. Do you still want to talk?"

* * *

They ended up sitting on the grass just at the edge of the sunlight on the field in relative silence for a while as Yuki ravenously finished the rest of the food To-ya had been kind enough to bring. He hadn't even realized how hungry he was until his friend had mentioned it; he hadn't meant to skip lunch, after all, but the day had just… slipped away from him. And when he though about going home all by himself to that empty house, he realized that was the very last thing he wanted.

He felt better, now that To-ya was here; his stomach had settled and since he had cleaned his glasses of the mysterious fog that seemed to be attracted to them today he could see fine, though he still couldn't seem to stop his hand from shaking and his throat was unusually tight whenever he thought of telling to-ya why he had spent all day shooting arrows into the ground.

"I called your house," Touya said finally. "A bunch of times. You never answer when it important; do you even check your messages?"

"What? Oh, um, no, I guess I don't," Yuki responded slowly.

There was another pause as they both watched the sky sift through several splotchy shades of pinks, purples, and oranges in it's trip towards the midnight blues of twilight.

After the blues of twilight came the black of night, some dark, buried part of his brain whispered softly to him, causing him to hug his knees tighter to his chest and lower his gaze to stare at where his bow lay dejected on the ground in the last of the sunlight.

"Um, thank you, To-ya," he said softly. "For coming for me, I mean." Touya turned to look at him, so he pinked slightly and continued on blindly. "I just… wanted to be outside today, and something about this usually calms me, so I guess I thought… I don't know. It doesn't really make sense, I guess."

To-ya frowned at him worriedly. "Yuki, are you sure you don't want to talk?"

"Oh no, it's okay," Yukito said, shaking his head earnestly. "Really, please don't… please don't worry about it anymore."

"Yuki…" Touya started, then stopped, shaking his head slightly. "Fine. Don't tell me if you don't want, but you have to swear that if it keeps really bothering you, I'm the first one you'll come to, okay?" Yuki blinked at him once in surprise, then nodded, so he sighed and stood up, popping his back stiffly. Maybe he should work out more often, he was getting awfully stiff lately. "It's almost dark now. Probably time to be heading home soon."

Yukito sighed, glancing down at his bow again. Half of it was in the shadows now.

"Okay. I need to clean this up. You can go ahead it you want; you don't need to walk me home," he said. He didn't want to go home yet.

Touya paused, scratching his head awkwardly as he thought back to his earlier conversation with the cop, then over his hours of frantic searching for his friend and sighed. "Yuki, do you… Would you like to come spend the night at my place?" he asked finally.

Yuki turned to look at him quickly, his big honey eyes widened curiously. "Really?" he asked hopefully, then sobered gravely. "But what about Akizuki-san?"

"Oh, screw her," Touya scowled. "If she finds the house and makes too much trouble, we can call the cops. You seem to have a friend or two there."

"You can do that?" his friend asked incredulously.

"Yeah, of course. Now do you want to or not?"

"Yes, very much!" Yuki gushed, looking overjoyed as he stood up and began hurriedly gathering his things. When he got to his bow, he stopped. "Oh, To-ya, I… I need to do something first."

To-ya just shrugged, so he grinned and scooped up his bow before it was completely swallowed by the shadows and trotted back over to line himself up with the target. He took a deep breath, raised the bow, took aim, and paused, feeling the warmth of the setting sun and the cool of the rising night both being eclipsed by the presence of the person he cared for most standing beside him, then took the shot.

It hit the target dead center.

Grinning stupidly, Yukito trotted happily back over to his dark haired friend, feeling the something that had been keeping him awake at night settle calmly into his soul, the presence of the other boy soothing him completely into irrationality. So he gladly went back to happily chattering mundanely about things that really didn't matter as they walked together to a place where the mixing colors of the day and twilight couldn't bother them.

They both slept wonderfully that night, unconsciously wrapped around each other and consciously unwilling to let go.

* * *

Sorry if this sucked; I tried to proofread it as best I could, but my brain crawled in some little corner and died. Thanks again to everyone who pointed out the whole 'minuet/minute' controversy, I've fixed it in the draft saved to my computer and will hopefully post the better version up tomorrow, because now my head needs sleep. I can't believe I went my entire life spelling it that way and no one before told me about it. Yikes. Also, if you don't like Vash (I'm aware characters from a different series can be a pain, trust me) just think of him as a spikey-haired, red wearing Fay. Kind of. I dunno, Fay reminded me of him at least. -shrug- Chapter ten is in the works, but I don't know how consistantly chapters will be coming for a little while, at least I get into the hang of the new school 'n all that rot. It won't be as long as before, worry not.


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